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GREAT FACTS 



GREAT FACTS: 



POPULAK HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION 



OF THE MOST 



REMARKABLE BYENTIO^^S 



DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 



BY 

FREDERICK C. BAKEWELL, 

AUTHOR OP 
'philosophical CONVEESATIONS,'' "MAIfUAL OF ELECTP.IC1TT," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAyI^•GS. 



NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

316 & 348 BROADWAY. 
1860. 






APR 18 T929 

Army and Navy ^-^ 
Was^ngton X*. 






PREFACE. 



The convenieuces, the comforts, and luxuries con- 
ferred on Society by tlie many important Inventions 
of the present century, must naturally excite a de^re 
to know the origin and progress of the application of 
scientific principles, by which such advantages have 
been gained. 

Practically considered, those Inventions are of 
much greater value than the discoveries of Science 
on which most of them depend ; and the scientific in- 
quirer who confines his views to abstract principles, 
without looking beyond them to the varied methods 
of their application to useful purposes, may be com- 
pared to a traveller who, having toiled arduously to 
gain the top of a mountain, then shuts his eyes on 
the prospect that lies before him. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

To the inquiring j^outli, more particularly, it is 
desirable that he should be enabled to satisfy his wish 
to know by what means such wonders as Steam Jfav- 
igation. Locomotion on Railways, the Electric Tele- 
graph, and Photography have been gradually devel- 
oped; and inbecomingacquainted with the successive 
steps by which they have advanced towards their 
present perfection, he will at the same time learn a 
useful lesson of perseverance under difficulties, and 
w411 have his mind impressed with many valuable 
scientific truths. The knowledge to be gained by such 
inquiry is eminently practical, and of a kind which 
those engaged in any of the pursuits of life can 
scarcely fail to require. 

A History of Inventions almost necessarily implies 
a description of the mechanisms and processes by 
w^hich they are effected ; so far, at least, as to render 
the principles on which their actions depend under- 
stood. It would be impossible, however, in a work 
of this limited size to enter minutely into explanations 
of mechanisms, and into the applications of scientific 
discoveries, which would require a separate treatise 
for each ; but it has been the Author's endeavour to 
give a succinct, intelligible account, free from techni- 
calities, of the manner in which they operate, so as to 
be comprehensible to all classes of readers. 



FKEFACE. IX 

By thus giving a popular character to the work, 
to make it acceptable to the young, it is hoped that 
it will not be found less worthy, on that account, the 
perusal of those more advanced in life. 

When Beckman wrote his History of Inventions, 
towards the close of last century, scarcely any of the 
wonderful discoveries and contrivances that now form 
parts of our social system were known ; and the table 
of contents of his two large volumes affords a curious 
insight to the nature and limited extent of such con- 
trivances as were then considered most important. 
The introduction into his history of such subjects as 
canary birds, carp, the adulteration of wine, apothe- 
caries, cock-fighting, and juggling, lead us to infer 
that the Historian of Inventions at that time must 
have had some difficulty to find appropriate matter 
wherewith to fill his volumes. The opposite difficulty 
now presents itself. The numerous important, won- 
derful, and curious accomplishments of human skill 
and ingenuity during the present century render pref- 
erence perplexing, where so many deserve descrip- 
tion. From among the number that press for notice, 
the Author has endeavoured to select those that are 
either the most important, the most remarkable, or 
that seem to possess the germs of future progress ; 



PREFACE. 



and lie trusts that the selection he has made, and the 
mode in which the subjects have been treated, will 
render this volume interesting and instructive. 



F. C. B. 



6 Haverstoch Terrace^ Hampstead^ 
NoMwber^ 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Progress op Invention 1 

Steam Navigation , 6 

Steam Carriages and Railways 32 

The Air Engine 60 

Photography 67 

Dissolving Views 86 

The Kaleidoscope 92 

The Magic Disc 98 

The Diorama 103 

The Stereoscope 112 

The Electric Telegraph 124 

Electro-^Magnetic Clocks 172 

Electro-Metallurgy 179 

Gas Lighting 188 

The Electric Light 209 

Instantaneous Lights 214 

Paper Making Machinery 221 

Printing Machines 230 



XI I CONTET^TS. 

PAGE 

Lithography 249 

Aerated Waters 258 

Revolvers and Minie Rifles 266 

Centrifugal Pumps 275 

Tubular Bridges 282 

Self-acting Engines, including the Nasmyth Steam Hammer 295 



GREAT FACTS. 



THE PEOGEESS OF INYElsTTlON. 

The inventive faculty of man tends more directly 
than any other intellectual power he possesses to raise 
him in the scale of creation above the brutes. Nearly 
every advance he makes beyond the exercise of his 
natural instincts is caused by invention — by that power 
of the mind which combines known properties in dif- 
ferent wavs to obtain new results. 

When an Indian clothes himself with the skins of 

animals, and when he collects the dried leaves of the 

forest for his bed, he is either an original inventor, or 

he is profiting by the inventions of others. Those 

simple contrivances — the first steps in the progress of 

invention — are succeeded by the more labored eff'orts 

of inventive genius, such as contriving means of shelter 

from rain, or from the heat of the sun. when caves 

cannot be found to creep into, or the overhanging 

foliage fails to afford sufficient covering. The con- 
1 



2 GREAT FACTS. 

struction of places of shelter is an imitation of the 
protection formed by Nature ; and the rudest hut and 
the most magnificent palaces have their prototypes 
in caverns and in the interlacing branches of trees. 

Nature also supplies knowledge of the means by 
which inventors are enabled to work. The savage who 
seizes hold of a broken bough is in possession of the 
lever^ the uses of which he learns by the facility it 
aflTords in moving other objects. He ascends to the 
top of a precipice by walking up the sloping hill 
behind, and he thus becomes practically acquainted 
with the principle of the inclined plane. The ele- 
ments of all the mechanical powers are then at his com- 
mand, to be applied by degrees in administering to 
his wants, as his inventive faculties, guided by ob- 
servation and experience, suggest. An accidental kick 
against a loose stone shows the action of propulsive 
force ; and the stone that he has struck with his foot, 
he learns to throw with his hand. The bending of 
the boughs of trees to and fro by the wind teaches 
the action of springs ; and in the course of time the 
bow is bent by a strip of hide, and the relaxation ot 
the spring, after farther bending, propels the arrow. 
Observation and imitation thus lead to invention, and 
every new invention forms the foundation of further 
progress. 

It has been so with every invention at present 
known, and must so continue to the end of time : — 
" There is nothing new under the sun." Gas lighting. 
Steam locomotion, and the Electric Telegraph have 
each sprung from some source " old as the hills,'' 



THE PKOGRESS OF INVENTION. 6 

though SO modified by gradually progressive changes, 
that the giant we now see bears no resemblance to 
the infant of ages past. 

The observation that light particles floating in tlie 
air are attracted by amber when rubbed, which was 
made known six centuries before the Christian era, 
was the origin of the invention by which communi- 
cations are now transmitted, with the rapidity of 
lightning, from one part of the world to another. 
There is no apparent relation between effects so dis- 
similar; yet the steps of progress can be distinctly 
traced, from the attraction of a feather to the develop- 
ment of the electric telegraph. 

Whenever the history of an invention can be thus 
tracked backward to its source, it will be found to 
have advanced to it-s present state by progressive 
steps, each additional advance having been dependent 
on the help given by the progress before made. Some- 
times these onward movements are greater and more 
remarkable than others, and the persons who made 
them have become distinguished for their inventive 
genius, and are considered the benefactors of mankind ; 
yet they were but the followers of those who had 
gone before and shown the way. 

Many of the most remarkable inventions are attri- 
butable to accidents noted by observing and inventive 
minds. Not unfrequently also have important discov- 
eries of truth been made in endeavouring to establish 
error ; and new light is being constantly thrown on 
the path of invention by unsuccessful experiments. 
This view of the means by which inventions 



4 GREAT FACTS. 

originate and are brought to perfection may appear 
to detract from the merit of inventors, since it regards 
them as founding their conceptions altogether on the 
works of others, or on chance. But instead of dimin- 
ishing their claims to approbation and reward, it 
places those claims on a more substantial foundation 
than that of abstract original ideas. The man who 
has the faculty to perceive that by a different applica- 
tion of well-known principles he can produce useful 
effects before unknown, directly benefits mankind far 
more than the discoverer of the principles which had 
till then lain dormant ; and the numerous difficulties 
which ever arise before an invention can be practically 
operative, frequently afford exercise for reasoning 
powers of the highest kind, which may develop new 
arrangements, that exhibit as much originality and 
research as were displayed by the discoverers of the 
principles on which the invention depends. 

The dependence of every invention on preceding 
ones produces very frequently conflicting claims among 
inventors, who, forgetting how much they were in- 
debted to others, do not hesitate to charge those, who 
make still further improvements, with imitation and 
piracy. It is, indeed, sometimes difficult to determine 
whether the alterations made in well-known contri- 
vances are, or are not, of sufficient importance to 
constitute inventions ; and there can be no doubt that 
there is too great facility afforded, by the indiscrimi- 
nate grant of letters patent, for the establishment of 
monopolies that often serve to obstruct further im- 
provements. At the same time, it must be observed 



THE PROGRESS OF INVENTION. O 

that a very trifling addition or change occasion ally- 
gives practical value to an invention, which had been 
useless without it. In such cases, though the indi- 
vidual merit of the inventor is small, the benefit 
conferred may be important, and may operate influen- 
tially in promoting the progress of civilization. 

Scientific discovery goes hand in hand with inven- 
tion, and they mutually assist each other's progress. 
Every discovery in science may be applicable to some 
new purpose, or give greater efficiency to what is old. 
Those new and improved instruments and processes 
provide science with the means of extending its 
researches into other fields of discovery ; and thus, as 
every truth revealed, supplies inventive genius with 
fresh matter to mould into new forms, those creations 
become in their turn agents in promoting further 
discoveries. 

The action and reaction thus constantly at work, 
tend to give accelerating impulse to invention, and 
are continually enlarging its sphere of operations. 
Instead, therefore, of supposing, as some do, that 
invention and discovery have nearly reached their 
limits, there is more reason to infer that they are only 
at the commencement of their careers ; and that, great 
as have been the wonders accomplished by the appli- 
cations of science during the first half of the present 
century, they will be at least equalled, if not surpassed, 
by those to be achieved before its close. 



STEAM ITAYIGATION. 

Ships, propelled by some mysterious power against 
wind and against tide, cutting their ways through the 
water without apparent impulse and like things of 
life, were not unfrequently seen gliding along in the 
regions of fancy, ages before the realization of such 
objects on geographical seas and rivers was looked 
upon as in the slightest degree possible. Even at the 
beginning of the present century, it seemed to be 
more probable that man would be able to navigate 
the air at will, than that he should be able, without 
wind or current, and in opposition to both, to propel 
and steer large ships over the waves ; yet, within 
twenty years afterwards, Steam Navigation had ceased 
to be a wonder. 

If we look back into the records of past ages, we 
find that inventive genius was active in the earliest 
times, in endeavouring to find other means of pro- 
pelling boats than by manual labour and the uncer- 
tain wind, some of which contrivances point to the 
method subsequently adoj)ted by the constructors of 
steam-vessels. 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 7 

To enable us to appreciate properly the gradual 
advances that have been made in perfecting any 
invention, it is necessary to consider its distinguishing 
features, and the difficulties which inventors have 
had successively to contend against. On taking this 
view of the progress of Steam Navigation, it will be 
found that the amount of novelty to which each 
inventor has a claim is very small, and that his prin- 
cipal merit consists in the application of other inven- 
tions to accomplish his special object. The same 
remark will indeed apply to most other inventions ; 
for the utmost that inventive genius can accomplish, 
is to put together in new forms, and with different 
applications, preceding contrivances and discoveries, 
which were also the results of antecedent knowledge, 
labour, and skill. 

When, for instance,welook upon an ordinary steam- 
boat, the most remarkable and the most important fea- 
ture is the paddle-wheel, by the action of which against 
tlie water the boat is propelled. Tet that method 
of propelling boats was practised by the Egyptians 
hundreds of years before steam power was thought 
of; and the ancient Eomans made use of similar 
wheels, worked by hand, as substitutes for oars. It 
would seem, therefore, to be only a small step in 
inventive progress, after the discovery of the steam 
engine, to apply that motive power to turn the 
paddle-wheels which had been previously used ; and 
now that we see the perfected invention, it may sur- 
prise those who are unacquainted with the difficulties 
which attend any new appliance, that Steam ISTaviga- 
tion did not sooner become an accomplished fact. 



8 GREAT FACTS. 

In a book called " Inventions and Devices," by 
"William Bourne, published in 1578, it was proposed to 
make a boat go by paddle-wheels, ^'to be turned by 
some provision." The Marquis of Worcester, in his 
^'Century of Inventions," also speaks vaguely of a mode 
of propelling ships. But Capt. Savery, the inventor 
of the earliest working steam engine, was the iirst to 
suggest the application of steam to navigation ; and Dr. 
Papin, who contended with Savery for priority of 
the invention, also suggested about the same time the 
application of the elastic force of steam to that purpose. 
These crude notions, however, do not deserve to be 
considered as inventions, though they probably assist- 
ed in suggesting the idea of the plan proposed by Mr. 
Jonathan Hulls, who in 1736 took out a patent for 
a steam-boat, and in the following year published a 
description of his invention, illustrated by a drawing, 
entitled, "A description and draught of a new-in- 
vented machine for carrying vessels or ships out ot 
or into any harbour, port, or river, against wind or 
tide, or in a calm." 

The greater part of this publication is occupied with 
answers to objections that he supposed might be raised 
to the scheme, and in the preface he makes the fol- 
lowing observations on the treatment inventors were 
exposed to in his day, which we fear will apply equally 
at the present time. ''There is," he says, ''one great 
hardship lies too commonly on those who purpose to 
advance some new though useful scheme for the 
public benefit. The world abounding more in rash 
censure than in candid and unprejudiced estimation of 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 



things, if a person does not answer their expectations 
in every point, instead of friendly treatment for his 
good intentions, he too often meets with ridicule and 
contempt." 

At the time of Mr. Hulls' invention, Watt had not 
made his improvements in the steam engine, and the 
kind of engine Hulls employed was similar to New- 
comen's, in which the steam was condensed in the 
cylinder, and the piston, after being forced down by 
the direct pressure of the atmosphere, was drawn 
upwards again by a weight. The paddle, or " vanes," 




as he called them, were placed at the stern, between 
two wheels, which were turned by ropes passing over 
their peripheries. The alternate motion of the piston 
w^as ingeniously converted into a continuous rotary 
movement, by connection with other ropes attached 
to the piston and to the weight, the backward move* 
ment being prevented by a catch or click. 

The woodcut which lays before you is a reduced 



10 GREAT FACTS. 

copy of Hulls' " draught " of his steam-boat, as 
given in his book, a copy of which is preserved in the 
British Museum. 

The utmost application of steam power to naviga- 
tion contemplated by Hulls was to tow large vessels 
into or out of harbour, in calm weather, by means of 
a separate steam tug-boat, as he considered the cum- 
bersome mechanism would be found objectionable on 
board the ships to be thus propelled. It does not 
appear that this plan was effectually tried, nor was 
the arrangement of the mechanism, nor the imperfect 
condition of the steam engine at that period, calculat- 
ed to make the effort successful. 

For some years after Mr. Hulls' plan had been 
published, and had proved abortive, no further attempt 
seems to have been made, until the improvements in 
the steam engine, bj^ Watt, rendered it more appli- 
cable for the purpose of navigation. The French 
claim for the Marquis de Jouffroy the honour of 
having been the first who successfully applied steam 
power to propel boats, in 1782 ; though another French 
nobleman, the Comte d'Auxiron, and M. Perier, had 
eight years previously made some experiments with 
steam-boats on the Seine. The Marquis de Jouffroy's 
steam-boat, which was 145 feet long, was tried on the 
Soane, near Lyons, with good promise of success. 
The marquis was, however, obliged to leave France by 
the fury of the Revolution, and when he returned in 
1796, he found that a patent had been granted to 
M. le Blanc, for building steam-boats in France. He 
protested against the monopoly, but the patent 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 11 

remained in force, and the plan received no further 
development, either from the Marquis de Jouffroy, or 
the patentee. 

About five years later, Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dal- 
swinton, in Scotland, directed his attention to the 
propulsion of boats by mechanical means, and con- 
trived different kinds of paddles, and other propellers 
to be worked by hand, which were tried on boats on 
Dalswinton Lake. The great labour required to work 
these machines induced Mr. James Taylor, a tutor in 
Mr. Miller's family, to suggest the use of steam power 
to turn them, and he recommended Mr. Miller to 
obtain the assistance of William Symington, an en- 
gineer, who was at that time endeavouring to make a 
steam locomotive carriage. Among tlie first difiiculties 
that suggested themselves, was the danger of setting 
fire to the boat by the engine furnace. This difficulty 
was overcome by Mr. Taj^or, and the arrangements 
were completed, and the experiment was tried in 1788 
The steam engine and mechanism were applied to a 
double pleasure-boat ; the engine being placed on one 
side, the boiler on the other, and the paddle-wheel in 
the centre. The cylinders of the steam engine were 
only four inches in diameter; but with this engine 
the boat was propelled across Dalswinton Lake at a 
speed of five miles an hour. 

The success of this experiment induced Mr. Miller 
to have a larger boat built, expressly adapted for the 
introduction of a steam engine. It was constructed 
under the superintendence of Symington, and was 
tried successfully on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 



12 GREAT FACTS. 

1789, when it was propelled at the rate of seven miles 
an hour. 

In the arrangement of the mechanism of this boat, 
the cylinder was placed horizontally, for the purpose 
of making connection between the paddle-wheel and 
the piston, without the working beam. The piston 
was supported in its position by friction wheels, and 
communicated motion to the paddles by a crank. The 
paddles were placed in the middle of the boat, near 
the stern ; and there was a double rudder, connected 
together by rods which were moved by a winch at the 
head of the vessel. 

It is not very clear why Mr. Miller did not follow 
up this success. Objection, indeed, was made by the 
proprietors of the canal on account of the agitation of 
the w^ater, which it was feared would injure the banks. 
It would appear also that a misunderstanding took 
place between Miller and Symington, which gave the 
former a distaste to the undertaking ; and having 
shown that such a plan was practicable, he left others 
to carry it into practical effect. 

Several methods of propelling boats, otherwise than 
by paddles, had some years previously been suggest- 
ed ; among which were two that have been again and 
again tried by succeeding inventors, down to the pres- 
ent day. 

One of these is an imitation of the duck's foot, 
which expands when it strikes the water, and collapses 
when it is withdrawn. The other is the ejection of a 
stream of water at the stern, or on both sides of the 
boat, so as to produce a forward movement by re- 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 13 

action. Both these plans of propulsion seem feasible 
in design ; but they have hitherto failed in practice. 
A pastor at Berne, named J. A. Genevois, has the 
credit of having invented the duck-feet propeller in 
1755 ; and in 1795, six years after Mr. Miller's suc- 
cessful experiments, Earl Stanhope had a steam-boat 
built on that principle. It was so far a failure, that it 
was not propelled faster than three miles an hour. 
The other method of propulsion, though of older date, 
was patented in 1800 by Mr. Linnaker, who proposed 
to draw the water in at the head of the vessel, and 
eject it at the stern, and thus to obtain a double action 
on the water for propelling ; but the plan was not 
found to answer. 

In 1801, Lord Dundas revived Mr. Miller's project, 
and availed himself of Mr. Symington's increased 
experience and the further improvements in the steam 
engine, to construct a much more perfect steam-boat 
than any that had been made. He spent £3,000 
in the experiments, and in March, 1802, his vessel, 
called the " Charlotte Dundas," was tried on the same 
scene of action, the Forth and Clyde Canal. This 
boat, according to Symington's report, towed two 
vessels, each of seventy tons burthen, a distance of 
nineteen miles and a half in six hours, against a strong 
wind. The threatened injury to the banks of the 
canal by the great agitation of the water prevented 
the use of this boat, which was consequently laid 
aside ; for the views of the inventors of steam-boats in 
the first instance were limited to their employment to 
drag boats along canals. 



14 GREAT FACTS. 

We now approach a period when more decided 
advances and more rapid progress were made towards 
realizing steam navigation as a practical fact. Mr. 
Fulton, an American, residing in France, after making 
a number of experiments, under the sanction and 
with the assistance of Mr. Livingstone, the American 
Ambassador, launched a small steam-boat on the Seine 
in 1803, but the weight of the engine proved too 
great for the strength of the boat, which broke in the 
middle, and immediately went to the bottom. 

Not disheartened by this failure he built another 
one, longer and stronger, and this he succeeded in 
propelling by steam power, though very slowly. It 
was, indeed, a much less successful effort than the 
attempts of Mr. Miller and Lord Dundas. Having 
been threatened with opposition by M. le Blanc, the 
patentee of steam-boats in France, Fulton determined 
to return to his native country, where the large 
navigable rivers and lakes offered ample scope for the 
development of steam navigation. Having heard of 
the success of Symington's boats, he visited Scotland 
for the purpose of profiting by his experience ; and he 
induced Symington, by promises of great advantages 
if tlie invention succeeded in America, to show him 
the " Charlotte Dundas " at work, and to enter into 
full explanations of every part. Thus primed with 
the facts, and with the further suggestions of Syming- 
ton, Fulton repaired to New York. Mr. Livingstone, 
w^ho had assisted Fulton in his experiments, was 
himself an inventor of several plans of propelling 
vessels by steam, and in 1798 he obtained a patent in 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 15 

the State of New York, for twenty years, on condition 
that he should produce a steam-boat by the 7th ot 
March, 1799, that Avould go at the rate oi four miles 
an hour. Having failed to fulfil that condition, the 
patent privilege was left open, and was promised to 
the first inventor who succeeded in propelling a boat 
by steam power at the proposed speed of four miles an 
hour. Fulton, who had entered into partnership with 
Mr. Livingstone, possessed advantages in the construc- 
tion of the vessel he built in America, far greater than 
any previous inventor. He had not onlj^ gained knowl- 
edge by his former failures, but he was able to profit 
by the experience of others, and he had secured a 
superior steam-engine, manufactured by Boulton and 
Watt, of twenty-horse power. This was a much more 
powerful engine than any that had been used in 
any former experiment ; the one employed by Mr. 
Livingstone having had only five-horse power. This 
steam-vessel was launched at New York in 1807, and 
was called the '' Clermont," the name of Mr. Living- 
stone's residence on the banks of the Hudson. Its 
length was 133 feet, depth 7 feet, and breadth 18 feet. 
The boiler was 20 feet long, 7 feet deep, and 8 feet 
broad. There was only one steam cylinder, which was 
2 feet in diameter, with a length of stroke of 4 feet. 
The paddle-wheels were 15 feet in diameter, and 
5 feet broad ; and the burthen of the vessel was 160 
tons. Crowds of spectators assembled to see the boat 
start on its first experimental voyage. The general 
impression, even of those who were friendly to Fulton, 
was that it would fail, and an accident which occurred 



16 GREAT FACTS. 

when the vessel was under way confirmed this opinion. 
The foreboders of evil exclaimed immediately that 
they had '' foreseen something of the kind ; " and 
observed '' it was a pity so much expense had been 
incurred for nothing ! " The required repairs were, 
however, soon made. The vessel when again tried cut 
her way bravely through the water, to the astonish- 
ment of all, and the doubts, and fears, and lamentations 
were quickly changed into congratulations. 

As the '' Clermont " urged its way up the Hudson, 
its chimney emitting innumerable sparks from the 
dried pine wood used as fuel, it excited great alarm 
among those who were not prepared for such an appa- 
rition. An American paper of that day thus described 
the efiect produced on the crews of other ships in the 
river: — "Notwithstanding the wind and tide were 
adverse to its approach, they saw with astonishment 
that it was rapidly coming towards them ; and when 
it came so near that the noise of the machinery and 
paddles was heard, the crews, in some instances, 
shrunk beneath their decks from the terrific sight, 
or left their vessels to go on shore ; whilst others 
prostrated themselves and besought Providence to pro- 
tect them from the approach of the horrible monster 
which was marching on the waves, and lighting its 
path by the fires which it vomited." 

During the time that Fulton was building his 
steam-boat Mr. K. L. Stevens, of Hoboken, in the 
State of New Jersey, was also engaged in a similar 
undertaking. Though his name is comparatively little 
heard of in the history of Steam Navigation, his 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 17 

eflfbrts were more successful than any that had been 
made previously, and but for the fortunate chance to 
Fulton that he was able to launch and put his boat in 
action a few days before Stevens had completed his, 
- all, and more than all, the merit that is now ascribed 
to the former would have been attributed to Stevens. 
The previous successful experiment of Fulton having 
fulfilled the conditions imposed by the State of New 
York, he obtained the exclusive right of steam naviga- 
tion on the rivers and along the coast of that State ; 
therefore, after Stevens had launched his boat on the 
Hudson, he w^as unable to em]3loy it there. In this 
predicament he ventured on the hazardous experi- 
ment of taking his steam-vessel by sea, and successfully 
accomplished his voyage from New York to Delaware. 
This was the first attempt to put to sea in a steam- 
boat. 

Mr. Stevens introduced many important improve- 
ments. He increased the length of stroke of the 
engines ; he applied upright guides for the piston- 
rod, to supply the place of the parallel motion ; and 
he divided the paddle-wheel by boards, by which 
means a more uniform motion was obtained. By these 
improvements he succeeded in raising the speed of 
steam -vessels to thirteen miles an hour. 

Whilst Steam Navigation was making such prog- 
ress in America, it was not neglected in this country. 
Mr. Henry Bell, of Glasgow, a man of great ingenuity, 
had for some time directed his attention to the subject, 
and had given some useful hints to Fulton. Seeing, 
as he afterwards said, no reason why others should 



18 GREAT FACTS. 

profit by his plans without his participation in the 
fame and the profits, he determined to build a steam- 
boat himself, which was completed and launched in 
1811. Bell called his boat the " Comet," in commem- 
oration of the remarkable eccentric luminary which 
was at that time frightening Europe from its pro- 
priety. The boat was 25 tons burthen, with an 
engine of about 3-horse power. It plied on the Frith 
of Forth for a distance of 27 miles, which in ordinary 
weather it accomplished in 3^ hours. The " Comet " 
is generally supposed to have been the first steam-boat 
that plied regularly in Europe ; and its construction 
was so perfect, that no boat built for many years 
afterwards surpassed it, taking into consideration its 
size and the small power of its engine. Bell, though 
he had done so much to advance Steam Navigation 
in this country, was allowed to sufi*er neglect and 
penury in his old age, till the town of Glasgow granted 
him a small annuity for his services. 

A claim has been preferred on behalf of Messrs. 
Furnace and Ashton, of Hull, to priority in building 
the first steam- vessel that was worked in England. It 
is stated, that " about the year 1787, experiments were 
made on the river Hull, by Farnace and Ashton, on 
the propulsion of vessels by steam power. Furnace 
and Ashton built a boat, which plied on the river, 
between Hull and Beverley, for some time, and an- 
swered exceedingly well. In consequence of the good 
results of their experiments, they built a much larger 
vessel and engine, and sent the whole to London, to 
be put together and finished ; after which it was sub- 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 19 

jected to the severest tests, and gave the greatest 
satisfaction. The vessel was bought by the Prince 
Eegent (afterwards George IV.), who had it fitted and 
furnished as a pleasure yacht ; but it was soon after- 
wards burnt, having, it is supposed, been wilfully set 
on fire by persons who were afraid that such an 
invention would be injurious to their calling. The 
Prince was so much pleased with the invention and 
ingenuity of Furnace and Ashton, that he granted 
them a pension for their lives of £70 a year each."^ 
This steamer was on the paddle-wheel principle, pro- 
pelled by a steam engine, to which was attached a 
copper boiler. 

From this time forward the progress of Steam Navi- 
gation was very rapid. Steam-ships were built longer 
and larger, and with more powerful engines ; and the 
most skilful builders rivalled each other in the con- 
struction and adaptation of their vessels and engines, 
so as to attain the highest possible speed. The 
locality in which Steam JS^avigation may be said to 
have had its birth continued for a long time to be 
pre-eminent, and steam-boats built on the Clyde still 
rank very high, if not the highest, in the scale of ex- 
cellence. 

The ordinary land steam engine required consider- 
able alterations to adapt it to marine purposes ; nor 
was it till great experience had been gained in pro- 
pelling vessels by steam power, that the more essen- 
tially requisite modifications were adopted. It was 
found important, in the first place, to reduce the space 

* British Association Report for 1853. 



20 GREAT FACTS. 

occupied by the machinery as much as possible. The 
boilers were consequently made of less dimensions, 
but more extensive in their heating surface. It was 
also found desirable to employ two engines instead of 
one, the pistons being made to rise and descend alter- 
nately. By this means the motion was rendered more 
equable, and by placing the cranks of the common 
shaft at right angles, the " dead points" were j)assed 
more readily, and the want of a fly wheel was thus 
compensated. 

The steam-boats employed in this country were, 
almost from the first, and continue with few excep- 
tions to be, on the low-pressure condensing principle ; 
the whole of the machinery being placed below the 
deck. This renders it necessary to diminish the height 
of the engines as much as possible ; and in all marine 
steam engines, till within the last twenty years, in- 
stead of having a working beam over the cylinders, a 
cross-head was placed at the top of the piston-rod, the 
action of which was conveyed by parallel motions to 
cross beams on each side, which were situated at the 
bottom part of each engine. The motion, compared 
with that of an ordinary land engine, was thus invert- 
ed. The proportions of the cylinders were also differ- 
ent ; the length of stroke being shorter, to diminish 
the height, and the diameter consequently greater. 
The valves, and the gearing connected with them, the 
air pump, the condenser, and other subsidiary parts, 
do not differ essentially from those of land engines ; 
but the governor is omitted, as it is found impractica- 
ble to work a marine engine with great regularity. 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 21 

Latterly, many engineers have introduced, with 
much success, arrangements for communicating the 
action directly from the piston-rod to the crank, with- 
out the intervention of the beam and parallel motions. 
This is generally done by causing the piston-rod to 
work between guides, and a jointed arm connects it 
with the crank. One method of producing the same 
eft'ect is to make the cylinders oscillate on pivots, as 
contrived by Mr. Murdoch, in the first model steam 
carriage, made in 1784. This principle has been 
successfully carried into operation by Messrs. Penn, 
of Greenwich. The oscillating cylinders accommo- 
date themselves to the varying directions of the 
cranks, and the strain occasioned by guide rods is 
diminished ; but when very large cylinders are 
required, the friction and the pressure on the pivots 
must tend to counterbalance the advantage otherwise 
obtained. 

In the ordinary paddle-wheel steam-boats, the 
floats of the paddle-wheels are fixed at equal distances 
round the rim, radiating from the centre ; therefore 
they enter and come out of the water obliquely. 
There is, consequently, a considerable loss of power 
attending the use of such paddle-wheels, as only one 
float at a time can be acting vertically on the water, 
and exerting the propelling force in a direct line. 
Several attempts have been made to remedy this 
defect, and to produce what is called " feathering " 
floats, every one of which will act against the water 
at right angles. The mechanism required for making 
this adjustment is, however, liable to get out of order, 



22 GREAT FACTS. 

and the introduction of vertically acting floats has 
consequently been very limited. 

The large projecting paddle-boxes are objectionable 
in sea-going ships, as they present so large a surface to 
the action of the wind, and either impede the course 
of the ship, or make it unweatherly. This inconvenience 
was experienced in the early progress of Steam Navi- 
gation, and many attempts were made to over- 
come it, by substituting a different kind of propeller. 
Recourse was had to the inventions of the ancients, from 
whom the paddle-wheel was taken, to find some other 
means of propulsion. A method of propulsion, similar 
in principle to the action of sculls at the back of a boat, 
had been contrived long before the inconvenience of 
paddle-wheels in Steam ITavigation was experienced. 
In 1784, Mr. Bramah obtained a patent for a propeller 
similar in its forms to the vanes of a windmill, which 
by acting obliquely on the water as it revolved, 
pushed the boat forward. Ten years afterwards, an 
" aquatic propeller " w^as patented by Mr. William 
Lyttleton, a merchant in London. It consisted of a 
single convolution of a three-threaded screw, and may 
be considered to be the first screw propeller invented. 
Numerous other ingenious persons, among whom were 
Tredgold, Trevethick, Maceroni, and Millington, af- 
terwards invented propellers on the screw principle; 
but none of them were sufficiently satisfactory in 
their results to come into practical use. 

In 1836, Mr. Smith and Mr. Ericsson obtained a 
patent for a screw propeller, which nearly resembled 
Mr. Ly ttleton's original contrivance ; and by persever- 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 23 

ance in struggling against the many obstacles with 
which he had to contend, Mr. Smith succeeded, 
though all previous efforts had failed. His partner, 
however, became disheartened by the obstacles thrown 
in their way, and left this country for America before 
the success of the screw was established. 

The first ship fitted with the screw propeller was 
called the *' Archimedes." It was a vessel of 237 
tons burthen, with a draught of water of 9 feet 4 
inches. The screw projected at the stern, and being 
turned rapidly round by the steam engine, the oblique 
action of the thread of the screw against the water 
impelled the vessel forward. 

The " Archimedes " was originally fitted with a 
single-threaded screw, the threads of which were 8 
feet apart, and there were two convolutions of the 
screw round the shaft. One convolution of the screw 
having been accidentally broken off, the ship was 
found to go faster in consequence ; and, following the 
course of investigation suggested by the accident, Mr. 
Smith at last adopted a double-threaded screw, with 
only half a convolution. The average performance of 
the engines was 26 strokes per minute, and the num- 
ber of revolutions of the screw in the same time was 
138i. The " pitch " of the screw was 8 feet ; that is, 
the space across one entire convolution of the thread 
would have measured 8 feet ; consequently, had it 
been acting against a solid body, as a cork-screw when 
entering a cork, one revolution of the shaft would 
have advanced the vessel 8 feet, and the speed would 
have been 12i miles an hour ; but the utmost speed 



24 



GREAT FACTS. 



the " Archimedes " obtained was 9^ nautical miles. 
The difference was owing to the screw " slipping " in 
the water, because the fluid yielded to the oblique 
action of the blades. 

The results of the working of that experimental 
ship were so satisfactory, that other ships were soon 
built, with modifications of the form of the propeller. 
It was found disadvantageous to have an entire con- 
volution of the thread of the screw ; for one part of it 
worked in the wake of the other, and resistance was 
produced by the backwater. After numerous exper- 
iments, in which the dimensions of the screw were 
successively diminished, the propeller was at length 




reduced to two oblique blades. Experiments on a large 
scale were conducted by Captain Carpenter, to deter- 
mine the size and angle of inclination best adapted for 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 25 

the purpose of propulsion ; and nearly all the ships 
now built for the Eoyal Navy are fitted with propel- 
lers on his principle. The annexed diagram represents 
on a scale of one-eighth of an inch to a foot, the form 
of the propeller of the " Agamemnon," of 606-horse 
power, which was recently engaged in successfully 
laying down the Atlantic Telegraph cable. The 
diameter of the screw is 18 feet, and the joitch 20 feet. 

The screw propeller possesses great advantages ' in 
ships of war, as it is not exposed to damage by shot, 
and it leaves the entire deck clear for mounting guns. 
It has also the further advantage of not interfering 
with the working of sails, and is, therefore, admirably 
adapted for sea-going ships that economize fuel by 
alternately steaming and sailing, as the wind is adverse 
or favourable. The commotion in the water made by 
paddle-wheels, which is an objection to their use in 
narrow rivers, is avoided by screw propellers, which 
being immersed under the water, make little agitation 
on the surface, and the ships move along without any 
apparent impelling power. 

The speed of ships with the best constructed screw 
propellers is fully equal to that of paddle-wheel 
vessels ; and when two vessels of the same size, and 
with engines of equal power, one fitted with paddles, 
and the other with the screw, are fastened stem and 
stern together, in a trial of strength, the screw pro- 
peller has been found to have the advantage, and to 
pull its antagonist along at the rate of one or two 
miles an hour. 

The difficulty at first experienced in the application 
2 



26 GREAT FACTS. 

of the screw propeller was to communicate a suffi- 
ciently rapid motion to the shaft to which it is fixed ; 
but, by the employment of direct-acting engines, this 
difficulty has been for the most part overcome. The 
power is generally first applied to drive a large cog- 
wheel, the teeth of which take into the teeth of a 
smaller cog-wheel fixed to the propeller shaft, and in 
this manner the velocity is sufficiently increased. 

In 1852 the proportion of screw to paddle-wheel 
vessels building in the Clyde was as 43 to 30. The 
advantages of the propeller are becoming every year 
more appreciated, and it is rapidly superseding the 
paddle-wheel. 

In the steam-boats of the United States the engines 
are constructed on the high-pressure principle ; and by 
working with steam of the pressure of 100 pounds on 
the square inch, and with larger paddle-wheels, their 
boats attain a speed exceeding sixteen miles an hour. 
But numerous explosions of boilers on the Xorth 
American rivers have operated as a caution against the 
introductionof high-pressure engines in steam-boats in 
this country. The dread of high-pressure steam was 
early impressed by the destructive explosion of the 
boiler of a steam-vessel at Norwich in 1817, which led 
to a long parliamentary inquiry into the subject; and 
the subsequent loss of life by the explosion of the 
" Cricket " on the Thames, has tended to strengthen 
the apprehension of high-pressure steam engines. For 
river use, however, w^hen fresh water is alwa3^s at 
command for generating the steam, there appears to 
be no more cause for fear of high-pressure engines in 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 27 

boats than on railways, provided the boilers are con- 
structed with sufficient care. The ex]>eriments made 
by Mr. Fairbairn on the strength of boilers, the results 
of which were communicated at the meeting of the 
British Association in 1853, prove, that by increasing 
the number and strength of the " stays, " or internal 
supports, of the boilers, they may be made, if suffi- 
ciently strong, to resist any possible pressure ; and that 
the square shape, which was supposed to be the weak- 
est, offers, on the contrary, peculiar facilities for giving 
increased strength. In one of these experiments made 
to determine the nltimate strength of the flat surfaces 
of boilers, when divided into squares of sixteen inches 
area, the boiler did not give way until it had sustained 
the enormous pressure of 1,625 pounds on the square 
inch. 

It might be desirable, in the construction of steam 
boilers, to adopt the same principle that is introduced 
in the building of gunpowder mills, one-half of which 
is built in strong mxasonry, w^hilst the other is made of 
wood. By this means, when an explosion does occur, 
much less damage is done, for the lighter part only is 
blown away, which does little injury. In the same 
manner, steam engine boilers might be constructed 
with a small portion comparatively weaker, so that 
if it gave way there would not be much damage done. 
Safety-valves are intended to act in that manner ; and 
if they were properly constructed, they would suffi- 
ciently answer the purpose, and guard against the 
possibility of danger ; but the numerous accidents that 
occur with boilers provided with imperfect safety- 



28 GREAT FACTS. 

valves, show that there is a necessity for some more 
effectual protection. Engineers are not sufficiently 
alive to the importance of improvements in this res- 
pect. They supply an engine with safety-valves, 
which would answer the purpose if kept in proper 
condition ; but they do not make effectual provision 
against careless management and reckless misconduct. 
Some years since, a gentleman in America sent to the 
author a description, with drawings, of a safety-valve 
that combined the principles of the safety-plug with- 
out its inconvenience ; it being so contrived that when 
the boiler became too hot, it melted some fusible 
metal which previously held down the valve, and then 
a weight pulled it op^n to allow an ample escape of 
steam ; but when the heat was lowered, the valve 
again closed. This was shown to an eminent engineer 
for his opinion. He pronounced it to be very ingen- 
ious, and that it would, no doubt, answer the purpose ; 
but he said, " An improved safety-valve is not wanted^ 
those in use being quite sufficient for the purpose." 

In steam-ships, where salt water is used for gene- 
rating the steam, the incrustation on the sides of the 
boilers becomes a serious annoyance. It obstructs tlie 
communication of heat from the furnace to the water, 
and the metal is thus liable to become red-hot. ISTumer- 
ous plans have been adopted for the purpose of pre- 
venting the accumulation of salt on the sides of the 
boiler, the most common of which is to allow the 
water, when saturated with saline matter, to escape, 
and then to fill the boiler afresh. Among other con- 
trivances for effecting the same purpose, without the 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 29 

waste of heating power which the cliange of water 
occasions, is Mr. Hall's plan of condensing the steam 
in dry condensers, cooled externally, so that the dis- 
tilled w^ater may be nsed again and again. This plan 
though theoretically good, is not much adopted ; for the 
condensation of steam cannot be so well accomplished 
by that means as w^hen a jet of cold water is thrown 
directly into the condenser. The principle of the dry 
condenser has, however, been lately made available 
in a new kind of engine, wherein the combined action 
of steam and of spirit vapour is applied as the propel- 
ling power. 

Steam-boats had been for many years in extensive 
use on the rivers and seas of Europe and America 
before it was thought practicable to make voyages 
in them across the Atlantic. At the meeting of the 
British Association at Liverpool in 1837, that subject 
was brought forward for consideration, and it was then 
attempted to be shown, by calculations of the quanti- 
ties of coal requisite for such a voyage, that steam 
communication with America w^ould not be profitable, 
if it could be accomplished, as the coal would occupy 
so much of the tonnage as to leave scarcely any space 
for passengers and goods. Within a few months 
afterwards those calculations were set at nought by 
the ^'Sirius" and the ''Great "Western, " which suc- 
cessfully crossed the Atlantic wdtli passengers and 
cargo, the former in nineteen days from Cork, and the 
latter in sixteen. At the present time, steam-packets 
are constantly crossing from New York to Liverpool in 
eleven days. 



30 . GREAT FACTS. 

Steam-ships now find their way to India and even 
to Anstralia, thongh the necessity of taking in coals at 
depots supplied from England not only prolongs the 
time, bnt adds so materially to the cost, as to render 
steam communication with those distant places scarce- 
ly practicable with profit, since no freight can pay for 
the expense of coaling nnder such circumstances. To 
overcome that difficulty, it was proposed to build ships 
large enough to carry a supply of coals sufficient for 
the voyage there and back. One of those ships has 
been built for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company 
by Mr. J. Scott Russell, from the plans of Mr. Brunei, 
which is 675 feet long, 83 feet broad, and 60 feet deep. 
It is adapted to carry 6,000 tons burthen, in addition 
to the engines and requisite quantity of fuel, and to 
accommodate 2,000 passengers. This monster ship 
has been built on what is called the " wave principle " 
of ship-building, with long concave bows. It is to be 
propelled by the combined powers of the paddle-wheel 
and the screw. The engines for the former consist of 
4 oscillating cjdinders, 16 feet long and 74 inches in 
diameter, and the screw is to be worked by 4 separate 
engines, with cylinders of 84 inches in diameter. The 
speed which the " Great Eastern " is estimated to 
attain is 24 miles an hour, and it is calculated that the 
voyage to Australia will bo accomplished in 30 days. 
There seems, at present, but small prospect of those 
calculations being realized, for the great cost incurred 
in launching the vessel and other expenses have ex- 
hausted the funds of the company by whom the ship 
was constructed. 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 31 

Another company has, however, been formed for 
the purpose of completing, if possible, this great 
experiment in Steam Navigation ; and the opinion so 
strongly expressed by Mr. Fairbairn at the recent 
meeting of the British Association at Leeds, of the 
strength of the monster ship, will give additional 
stimulus to their exertions. The ship is built on the 
same principle of construction as the Britannia Bridge 
over the Menai Straits, and it was stated by Mr. 
Fairbairn that it might be supported out of water, 
either in the centre or at each end, without injury. 



STEAM CAERIAGES AND EAILWAYS. 

'No invention of tlie present century has produced 
so great a social change as Steam Locomotion on rail- 
ways. ITot only have places that were formerly more 
than a day's journey from each other been made ac- 
cessible in a few hours, but the cost of travelling has 
been so much reduced, that the expense has in a great 
degree ceased to operate as a bar to communication by 
railway for business or pleasure. 

Though the coaching system in this country had 
attained the highest degree of perfection, a journey 
from London to Liverpool, previously to the formation 
of railways, was considered a serious undertaking. 
The ''fast coach," which left London at one o'clock in 
the day, did not profess to arrive in Liverpool till six 
o'clock the following evening, and sometimes it did 
not reach there till ten o'clock at night; and the fare 
inside was four guineas, besides fees to coachmen and 
guards. The same distance is now performed in six 
hours, at one-third the expense, and at one-fourth the 
fatigue and inconvenience. 

Railway Locomotion, however, forms no exception 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 33 

to the rule, that most modern inventions have their 
prototypes in the contrivances of ages past. They were 
used upwards of two hundred years before locomotive 
engines were known, or before the steam engine itself 
was invented. The manifest advantage of an even 
track for the wheels long ago suggested the idea ot 
laying down wood and other hard, smooth surfaces 
for carriages to run upon. They were first applied to 
facilitate the traffic of the heavily laden waggons 
from the coal pits ; the " tramways," as they were 
called, being formed of timber about six inches square 
and six feet long, fixed to transverse timbers or 
" sleepers," which were laid on the road. These 
original railways were made sufficiently wide for the 
wheels of the waggons to run upon without slipping 
oflf ; the plan of having edgings to the rails, or flanges 
to the wheels, not having been adopted till a later 
period. To protect the wood from wearing away, 
broad plates of iron were afterwards fixed on the tram- 
ways. 

Cast iron plate rails were first used in 1767. The 
flat plates on which the wheels ran were made about 
three inches wide, with edges two inches high, cast 
on the near side, to keep the wheels of the '* trams " 
on the tracks. These iron plates were usually cast in 
lengths of six feet, and they were secured to trans- 
verse wooden sleepers by spikes and oaken pegs. The 
tramways were laid down on the surface of the coun- 
try without much regard to hills and valleys, the 
horses that drew the trains being whipped to extra 
exertion when thev came to a hill, and in descending 
2* ^ 



34 GREAT FACTS. 

some of the steep inclines, the animals were removed, 
and the loaded waggons were allowed to descend the 
hills by their own gravity, the velocity being checked 
by a break put on by a man who accompanied them. 

The chief use of the tramways was to facilitate the 
conveyance of coals from the pits to tlie boats ; and 
as the level of the pit's mouth was higher than that 
of the water, it was an object, in laying down a tram- 
way, to make a continuous descent, if possible, for the 
loaded trains to run down, the dragging back of the 
empty ones being comparatively easy. Thus, though 
" engineering difficulties " were not mucli considered 
in the construction of those early railways, engineer- 
ing contrivances were adopted to diminish the draught, 
by making the gradients incline in one direction. 

Soon after the invention of the Steam Engine had 
been practically applied to mining purposes, its pow- 
er was directed to draw the coal waggons on rail- 
ways. This was done about the year 1808 ; and, in 
the first instance, the application of steam power was 
limited to drawing the loaded waggons up steep in- 
clines. A stationary engine was erected at the top 
of the incline, and the waggons were drawn up by a 
rope wound round a large drum. This mode of trac- 
tion was afterwards extended, in many instances, 
along the whole railway, so as to supersede the use 
of horse power. The employment of stationary en- 
gines in this manner was continued, even after the 
invention of locomotive steam engines, to draw the 
trains up inclines that were too steep for the power 
of the small locomotives at first used to surmount; 
nor has this plan been yet altogether abandoned. 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 35 

The application of steam to the direct propulsion 
of carriages was a comparatively slow process. It 
was, indeed, contemj^lated by "Watt, as a substitute 
for horse power on common roads, though he does 
not seem to have contrived any means by which it 
might be done. The first known application of the 
kind was made by Mr. Murdoch, an engineer in the 
employment of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, who in 
1784 constructed a working model of a steam car- 
riage, still preserved, and which formed one of the 
most interesting objects in the Great Exhibition of 
1851. The boiler of this model locomotive is made 
of a short length of brass tube, closed with flat ends. 
The furnace to generate the steam consists of a spirit 
lamp. The steam is conducted directly from the 
boiler to a single cylinder, which is mounted on a 
pivot near the centre, so that by the movement of 
the cylinder the piston-rod may adapt itself to the 
varying positions of the crank. The two hind wheels 
are fixed to the axle, and on the latter is the crank, 
attached to the piston-rod. A single wheel in front 
serves to guide the carriage, which is propelled by 
the rotation of the two hind wheels. The elastic force 
of the steam is directly applied as the moving power ; 
and after it has done its work in the cylinder, it is al- 
lowed to escape into the air. 

This first known application of steam as a locomo- 
tive power is more perfect in its general arrangements 
than many steam carriages that were subsequently 
brought into operation ; and in the plan of balancing 
the cylinder on pivots, we perceive the origin of the 



36 GREAT FACTS. 

oscillating engines, which have been recently intro- 
duced with much success in Steam Navigation. By 
that arrangement there is attained the most direct ap- 
plication of the piston-rod to the crank, with the least 
loss of power. 

Mr. Murdoch's intention was to employ such car- 
riages on common roads, but he did not proceed to 
put his plan into operation. Several other engineers, 
among whom was Symington — who, as we have be- 
fore seen, took an active part in the invention of 
Steam ISTavigation — afterwards endeavoured to realize 
Mr. Murdoch's ideas on a working scale ; but the first 
who succeeded in making a locomotive engine, that 
ran with any success, were Messrs. Trevethick and 
Vivian. In 1804 they constructed a locomotive en- 
gine, which was employed on a mineral railway at 
Merthyr Tydvil, in South Wales. The boiler of their 
engine resembled the one in Mr. Murdoch's model, 
in having circular fiat ends ; but, to increase the 
heating surface, a flue was introduced in the middle 
of the boiler, which passed through it and back again, 
in the shape of the letter U. The lower part of the 
tube formed the furnace, and the upper part returned 
through the boiler into the chimney. The steam 
was admitted into and escaped from the cj^inder by 
the working of a four-way cock, the contrivance of 
the slide-valve being then unknown. On the axle 
of the crank a cog-wheel was fixed, and, by means 
of the usual gearing, it communicated motion to the 
hind wheels, which were fixed to the axle, so that 
when the wheels revolved the carriage was propelled. 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 37 

It is a remarkable fact that this engine of Mr. 
Trevethick's presents the first practical application of 
high-pressure steam as a motive power. Watt had, 
indeed, suggested the application of the impulsive 
power of steam, and Mr. Murdoch's model locomotive 
was necessarily constructed on that principle ; but 
until Mr. Trevethick's locomotive engine was in ac- 
tion, no application of high-pressure steam had been 
made on a working scale. 

The projectors of locomotive engines were for 
many years possessed with the notion that it was 
necessary to have some contrivance to prevent the 
wheels from slipping on the road, as it was supposed 
that otherwise the wheels would be turned without 
moving the carriage. Numerous plans were devised 
for overcoming this imaginary difiiculty ; and though 
experience proved that even on railways the adhesion 
of the wheels was, in ordinary circumstances, suf- 
ficient, yet various schemes continued to be tried for 
the purpose of facilitating the ascent of hills. The 
imitation of the action of horses' hoofs was one of the 
means attempted, but such additional aids were eventu- 
ally found to be of no avail, and were discontinued. 

All the endeavours that were made, in the first 
instance, to ai3ply steam power to locomotion, had in 
view the propulsion of carriages on common roads, 
the idea of constructing level railways through the 
country, for facilitating the general trafiic, being 
looked upon as too visionary a project to be realized. 
The inventors of locomotive engines consequently di- 
rected their attention almost exclusively to the ar- 



38 GREAT FACTS. 

rangement that would best apply steam power to 
overcome the varying obstacles and undulations of 
common roads. 

It is very curious and interesting, in tracing the 
progress of an invention, to observe the diff'erent 
phases through which it has passed, before it has been 
brought into the state in which it is ultimately ap- 
plied. It not unfrequently happens that the original 
purpose sinks into insignificance, and is almost lost 
sight of, as the invention becomes more fully de- 
veloped. Other objects, that were not perceived, or 
were considered altogether impracticable, present 
themselves, and are then pursued ; and the invention, 
when perfected, is very different from its original de- 
sign. Thus the endeavours of the first inventors of 
Steam JSTavigation were confined to the construction 
of steam-tugs that would propel the boats along canals, 
or take a ship into harbour, the notion of fitting a 
steani engine into a ship to propel it across the sea 
not having been thought of. In the same manner, the 
invention of Steam locomotion on railways was either 
not contemplated in the first instance, or was consid- 
ered very subordinate to the construction of carriages 
to be propelled by steam power on common roads. 

Among the most successful of those engineers, who 
constructed steam carriages to run on roads, were Mr. 
Gurney, Mr. Birstall, Mr. Trevethick, Mr. Handcock, 
and Colonel Maceroni. Mr. Gurney was one of the 
first on the road. His steam carriage completed sev- 
eral journeys very successfully, and proved the prac- 
ticability of employing steam power in locomotive 



STEAM CAKRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 39 

engines many years before the first passenger railway 
was brought into operation. This, like all other new 
inventions, was, however, beset with difficulties, 
among which the most annoying was the determined 
obstruction the plan met with from the trustees of 
public roads, who levied heavy tolls on the carriages, 
and laid loose stones on the roads to stop them from 
running, as the driving wheels were found to be de- 
structive to the roads. There was also considerable 
danger in running steam carriages on the same roads 
on which ordinary traffic was conducted, because the 
strange appearance of the engines, their noise, and the 
issuing steam, frightened the horses. 

Notwithstanding these difficulties, the importance 
of appljang steam as a locomotive power for passenger 
traffic became so apparent, that a Committee of the 
House of Commons was appointed in 1831, to consider 
whether the plan could be adopted with safety on 
common roads, and whether it should not be encour- 
aged by passing an Act of Parliament for regulating 
the tolls chargeable on such carriages, and for pre- 
venting the obstructions to which they had been ex- 
posed. The evidence given before the Committee 
was greatly in favor of steam carriages, and tended 
to show that there was no insuperable difficulty to the 
general adoption of them. The Committee accord- 
ingly reported as follows : — 

'' Sufficient evidence has been adduced to convince 
your Committee — 

" 1st. That carriages can be propelled by steam 
on common roads at an average speed of ten miles 
an hour. 



40 GREAT FACTS. 

" 2nd. That at that rate they have conveyed up- 
wards fourteen passengers. 

'" 3rd. That their weight, including engines, fuel, 
water, and attendants, may be under three tons. 

'^ 4th. That they can ascend and descend hills of 
considerable elevation, with facility and safety. 

" 5th. That thej are perfectly safe for passengers. 

" 6th. That they are not (or need not be, if properly 
constructed) nuisances to the public. 

"7th. That they will become a speedier and 
cheaper mode of conveyance than carriages drawn by 
horses. 

" 8th. That as they admit of greater breadth of 
tire than other carriages, and as the roads are not 
acted upon so injuriously as by the feet of horses in 
common draught, such carriages will cau.se less wear 
of roads than coaches drawn by horses. 

" 9th. That rates of toll have been imposed on 
steam carriages which would prohibit them being 
used on several lines of roads, were such charges per- 
mitted to reman unaltered." 

In defiance of this favourable report, experience 
proved that there were defects in that system of loco- 
motion greater than its advocates were disposed to 
admit, and that the mechanism was frequently broken 
or disarranged by the constant jarring caused by the 
roughness of the road. The alarm of the horses draw- 
ing other carriages was also calculated to produce 
fearful accidents. 

So far, indeed, as regarded the power of locomo- 
tion, the steam carriages were successful. The author 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 41 

was witness of this success durino; a sliort excur- 
sioii in Colonel Maceroni's carriage, which ' ascended 
hills and ran over rongh roads with great ease, and 
at a speed of twelve miles an hour. The practical 
difficulties, however, were so great, that steam car- 
riages have not been able to compete with horse 
power ; for the original cost of the boiler and engine, 
the necessary repairs, and the expense ot fuel, amount- 
ed to more than the cost and keep of horses. The 
plan was practically tried for several weeks, in 1831, 
by running a steam carriage for hire from Padding- 
ton to the Bank of England. The carriage, of which 
the annexed diagram is an outline, was one of those 



constructed by Mr. Handcock. The engine was 
placed behind the carriage, which was capable of 
containing sixteen persons, besides the engineer and 
guide. The latter was seated in front, and guided the 
carriage by means of a handle, which turned the 
fore wheels. The carriage was under perfect control, 
and could be turned within the space of four yards. 
With this carriage, Mr. Handcock stated he accom- 
plished one mile up hill at the rate of seventeen miles 
an hour. The carriage loaded very well at fares 



42 GREAT FACTS. 

whicli would now be considered exorbitant, but the 
frequent necessity for repairs rendered the enterprise 
unsuccessful, and the steam carriage was taken off the 
road. 

The successful establishment of railways, and the 
great advantages arising from them compared with 
the ordinary means of conveyance, still further re- 
duced the chance of establishing Steam Locomotion 
on roads, and the plan is now in abeyance, at least, 
if it has not been abandoned. It is very possible, 
however, that in the progress of invention, modifica- 
tions may be made in the steam engine, to adapt it 
more successfully to the purpose ; or more suitable 
motive powers may be discovered, that may bring 
mechanical locomotion on roads again into favour. 

The successful application of Steam Locomotion 
on railways cannot be dated more than thirty years 
ago ; yet in that short period its progress has been so 
rapid, that but few traces of the old mode of travel- 
ling by stage coaches are now to be seen. 

Some locomotive steam carriages had, indeed, 
been introduced on the Stockton and Darlington coal 
railway, by Mr. George Stephenson, in 1825, but their 
results were not so satisfactory as to induce the ex- 
tension of the plan to the other railways that were 
then laid down in the coal districts of England. The 
cylinders of those engines were vertical, and each of 
the four wheels acted propulsively on the rails by 
means of an endless chain running along cog-wheels 
fixed on the axles. The utmost speed that could be 
obtained by this means was eight miles an hour; and 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 43 

SO little were tliese engines calculated to solve the 
problem of the practicability of steam locomotive en- 
gines, that when the first passenger railway was pro- 
jected, from Liverpool to Manchester, it was proposed 
to propel the carriages by the traction of ropes, 
put in motion by stationary steam engines. The di- 
rectors, before finally determining on the system of 
locomotion to be adopted, offered a premium of £500 
for the best locomotive engine to run on that line. 
The stipulations proposed, and the conditions which 
the required engines were to fulfil, may be regarded 
as a curious exposition of the limited views then taken 
of the capabilities of Steam Locomotion on railways. 
The engine " was to consume its own smoke ; to be 
capable of drawing three times its own weight at 10 
miles an hour, with a pressure on the boiler not ex- 
ceeding 50 pounds on the square inch; the whole to 
be proved to bear three times its working pressure — 
a pressure gnage to be provided ; to have two safety- 
valves, one locked up ; the engine and boiler to be 
supported on springs, and rested on six wheels, if the 
weight should exceed 4J tons ; height to the top of 
the chimney not to exceed 15 feet ; weight, including 
water in boiler, not to exceed 6 tons, or less, if pos- 
sible ; the cost of the engine not to exceed £550." 

An engine, called the " Eocket," constructed by 
Messrs. Booth and Stephenson, was the successful 
competitor for the prize. It so far exceeded the re- 
quired conditions as to speed, that, when unattached 
to any carriages, it ran at the rate of 30 miles an 
hour. The principal cause of its successful action 



44 GREAT FACTS. 

was the introduction of a boiler perforated lengthwise 
by many tubes, through which the heated air of the 
furnace passed to the chimney, and by this means a 
much larger evaporating surface was obtained than 
in the boilers previously employed, with a single flue 
passing through the centre. The tubes were of cop- 
per, three inches in diameter, one end of each com- 
municating with the chimney, and the other with the 
furnace. There were twenty-five of these tubes pass- 
ing through the boiler, and fixed water-tight at each 
end. 

The boiler was 3 feet 4 inches in diameter, and 6 
feet long ; and it exposed a heating surface of 117 
square feet. There were two cylinders, placed in a 
diagonal position, with a stroke of 16|- inches, and each 
worked a wheel 4 feet 8^ inches diameter, the piston- 
rod being attached externally to spokes of the driving 
wheels. The draught of the chimney, aided by the 
escaping steam from the cylinders, which was ad- 
mitted into it, served to keep the fuel in active com- 
bustion. The " Eocket " weighed 4^ tons ; the tender, 
with water and coke, 3 tons 4 cwt. ; and two loaded 
carriages attached, 9i tons ; so that the engine and 
train together weighed about 19 tons. The boiler 
evaporated 114 gallons of water in the hour, and con- 
sumed, in the same time, 217 pounds of coke. The 
average velocity of the train was 14|- miles per hour. 

The accompanying woodcuts represent an eleva- 
tion of the " Eocket," and a section of its boiler. In 
these figures, a is the fire-box or furnace, surrounded 
on all sides with water, with the exception of the side 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 



45 



perforated for the reception of the tubes ; 5 is the 
boiler ; cZ, one of the steam cylinders ; e^ the cliimney ; 
A and i^ safety-valves ; f^ one of the connecting rods 
for commnnicating motion to the driving wheels. 




Three other engines competed with the '' Rocket," 
two of which had attained great speed on previous 
trials. These were the '' ISTovelty," constructed by 
Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson, which weighed 
only 2f tons ; and the '^ Sans Pareil," manufactured 
by Mr. Arkworth, which weighed 4J tons. On the 
day of trial, the 6th of October, 1829, these two loco- 
motive engines were disabled by the bursting of some 
of their pipes, and thus the field was left clear to \h^ 
" Eocket," for the fourth engine had no chance of 
winning the prize. 



46 GKEAT FACTS. 

The " Eocketj" indeed, more than fulfilled all the 
conditions required by the directors of the railway, 
who thereupon decided on emplojnng locomotive en- 
gines for the traffic on the line. 

The " Rocket " has formed the model on which 
all subsequent locomotive engines have been con- 
structed ; for, though numerous alterations and im- 
provements have been made in details, and though 
the size of the engines has been greatly enlarged, the 
principle of construction remains essentially the same. 
Among the improvements that have been introduced 
by different inventors, is an increase in the number 
of the tubes in the boiler, so as to facilitate the gener- 
ation of steam, some of the engines now made having 
upwards of 100 tubes, though of smaller diameter 
than those of the "' Rocket." The boilers have also 
been elongated, to enlarge the evaporating surface 
and economize fuel. The cylinders are placed 
horizontally, and they are generally fixed inside the 
boiler, to prevent the cooling of the steam. The pis- 
ton-rods are attached to cranks on the axle, placed at 
right angles to each other ; and the engines are 
generally mounted on six wheels, four of which are 
driving wheels, made of larger size than the two 
others, and they are coupled together by connecting 
arms. The large and powerful engines on the Great 
Western Railway have, however, only two driving 
wheels, which are 8 feet in diameter. These engines 
weigh as much as 31 tons, which is seven times more 
than the weight of the " Rocket." They are capable 
of taking a passenger train of 120 tons at an average 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 



47 



speed of 60 miles an hour on easy gradients ; and the 
effective power, as measured by a djmamometer, is 
stated to be equal to T43 horses. 

The accompanying engraving of one of the recent- 
ly constructed engines on the Great "Western Railway 
presents a remarkable difference in point of size and 
general arrangement to the original prototype, from 
which, however, it does not materially differ in the 
principle of its construction. 




The complete success of the ^'Eocket" having 
settled the question of the mode of traction, the Di- 
rectors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
made increased efforts to complete the line, and to 
open it for general traffic. In September, 1830, all 
was ready for the opening, which it was determined 
should take place with a ceremony indicative of the 



48 GREAT FACTS. 

importance of the great event. The principal mem- 
bers of the Government consented to take part in the 
inauguration of the railway, and the utmost interest 
was excited throughout the country for the success of 
an undertaking that promised to be the commence- 
ment of a new era in travelling. The 15th of Sep- 
tember was the day appointed, and there were eight 
locomotive engines provided to propel the same 
number of trains of carriages, which were to form the 
procession. All along the line there were crowds of 
persons collected to w^itness the ceremony. The trains 
started from the Liverpool end of the railway ; and, 
as they passed along, they were greeted by the cheers 
of the astonished and delighted spectators. On ar- 
riving at Parkside, seventeen miles from Liverpool, 
the engines stopped to take in fresh supplies of fuel 
and water. The passengers alighted and walked 
upon the line, congratulating one another on the de- 
lightful treat they were enjoying, and on the success 
of the great experiment. All hearts were bounding 
with joyous excitement, when a disastrous event oc- 
curred, which threw a deep gloom over the scene. 
The Duke of "Wellington, Sir Kobert Peel, and Mr. 
Huskisson were among those who were walking on 
the railway, when one of the engines was recklessly 
put in action, and propelled along the line. There 
was a general rush to the carriages, and Mr. Huskis- 
son, in trying to enter his carriage, slipped backwards 
and fell upon the rails. The wheels of the engine 
passed over his leg and thigh, and he was so severely 
injured, that he expired in a few hours. 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 49 

Notwithstanding this lamentable occurrence, the 
journey was continued to Manchester, and the car- 
riages returned to Liverpool the same evening. On 
the following morning the regular trains commenced 
running, and they were crowded with passengers, 
nothing daunted by the fatal calamity on the opening 
day. 

Tlie immense advantages of this mode of travel- 
ling were at once apparent, and lines of railway in 
diflerent parts of the country were quickly projected. 
The railway from London to Birmingham was the first 
one commenced after the completion of the Liverpool 
and Manchester line, and a connecting link with Man- 
chester and Liverpool was also begun by a separate 
company. The Birmingham Railway was opened 
throughout on the 17tli September, 1838. 

Railway enterprise was not checked by the great 
cost of the undertakings, nor by the miscalculations 
of the engineers, who, in the first instance, frequently 
greatly under-estimated the expenditure requisite for 
the cuttings, embankments and tunnels, which were 
thought necessary to attain as perfect a level as pos- 
sible. The original estimate for the Liverpool and 
Manchester Railway was £300,000, but the amount 
expended on the works at the time of opening was 
nearly £800,000. The original estimate of the Lon- 
don and Birmingham Railway, including the pur- 
chase of land, and the locomotives and carriages, was 
£2,500,000, whilst the actual cost amounted to 
£5,600,000, the cost of the works and stations being 
about £38,000 per mile. The Grand Junction Rail- 



50 GREAT FACTS. 

way, from Birmingliam to Liverpool, was more eco- 
nomically constructed, because the difficulties to be 
surmounted were not so great, and less attention was 
paid to maintain a level line. It was estimated to 
cost, including all charges, £13,300 per mile, though 
the actual cost was £23,200. 

The plan adopted for laying down and fixing the 
rails on all the railways in England, with the exception 
of the Great "Western, is nearly similar to that on 
which the original coal-pit railways were constructed. 
Pieces of timber, called " sleepers," are laid at short 
distances across the road, and on to these sleepers are 
fixed cast iron " chairs," into which the rails are 
fastened by wedges, the sleepers being afterwards 
covered with gravel or other similar material, called 
" ballast," to make the timbers lie solidly, and to keep 
the road dry. 

The railway system of Great Britain was com- 
menced without sufficient attention to the determina- 
tion of the best width apart of the rails. In forming 
the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway, the guage of 
the railways in the collieries was adopted, and the 
width between the rails was made 4 feet 8J inches. 
The same width of rails was adopted on the London 
and Birmingham and Grand Junction Kail ways ; and 
as uniformity of guage was essential to enable the 
engines and carriages on one line to travel on another, 
the other railways connected with the grand trunk 
line were made of the same width of guage. Mr. 
Brunei, the engineer of the Great Western Railway, 
departed from that uniformity, and laid down the 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 51 

rails 7 feet apart. The increased width of guage pos- 
sesses many advantages, of which greater steadiness 
of motion and greater attainable speed, without risk, 
are the most important ; but, at the same time, the 
additional space incurs a greater expense in laying 
out the line. As branches from the Great "Western 
Railway spread into the districts where the narrow 
guage railways had been laid down, much inconve- 
nience has arisen from the break of guage, as it oc- 
casions the necessity for a change of carriages. On 
some railways, to avoid this inconvenience, narrow 
and broad guage rails have been laid down on the 
same line. 

If the railway system of Great Britain were to be 
recommenced, after the experience that has now been 
acquired, the medium guage would most probably be 
adopted ; and in commencing to lay down railways in 
Ireland, the Irish Railway Commissioners recom- 
mended 6 feet 2 inches as the most desirable width, 
and that standard has been advantageously adopted 
in the sister country. 

Travelling experience tells greatly in favour of the 
broad gauge. There is no railway out of London 
whereon the carriages run so smoothly, and on which 
the passengers are so conveniently accommodated, as 
on the Great Western. The speed attained on that 
railway also surpasses that on any other. The express 
train runs from London to Bristol, a distance of 120 
miles, in less than three hours. The author accom- 
panied an experimental train, when one of the large 
engines was first put upon the line, and during some 



52 GREAT FACTS. 

portion of the journey a rate of YO miles an hour was 
accomplished without any inconvenient oscillation. 

It must be observed, with regard to the action of 
locomotive engines, that as the piston-rods are attached 
directly to cranks on the axle, each piston makes a 
double stroke for every revolution of the driving 
wheels ; consequently, when the engine is running at 
great speed, the movement of the piston is so rapid, 
that there is neither time for the free emission of the 
waste steam, nor for the full action of the high-pressure 
steam admitted. There is, therefore, a great waste of 
power occasioned by the admitted steam having to act 
against the steam that is escaping ; and an engine, 
calculated to have the power of 700 horses, will not 
exert a tractive force nearly equal to that amount. 
With a driving wheel 6 feet in diameter, a locomotive 
engine will be propelled 18 feet by each double stroke 
of the piston, if there be no slipping on the rails ; 
consequently, in the space of a mile, the piston must 
make 300 double strokes. When running, therefore, 
at the speed of 30 miles an hour, the piston makes 150 
double strokes per minute. 

The success of the great experimental railway from 
Manchester to Liverpool not only stimulated similar 
works in this country, undertaken by private enter- 
prise ; but the Continental Governments quickly per- 
ceived the importance of that means of communication, 
and commenced the formation of railwavs at the 
national cost, and placed them under governmental 
control. Belgium was peculiarly adapted, by the 
general level state of the country, for the formation 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 53 

of railways ; and long before any connected system 
was completed in this country, the chemins de fer 
formed a complete net-work in that kingdom, and 
the system of conducting the traffic was brought to a 
much his-her state of Derfection than was attained in 
this country. The rate of travelling, however, was 
slower. 

It is a question that has been often mooted, whether 
it is better to allow the system of communication 
throngliout the country to be conducted by indepen- 
dent companies of enterprising individuals, or to place 
it entirely under the control of the Government. The 
want of system manifested in the formation of the 
railways in England has proved a serious incon- 
venience, and has occasioned wasteful expenditure, 
besides having led to a fearful destruction of life, owing 
to the want of careful attention to the means of safety, 
and to ill-judged parsimony in the management of the 
traffic. There can be no doubt that if the Govern- 
ment had undertaken the work zealously, and with 
the view of establishing a complete system of railway 
communication, many of the inconveniences now ex- 
perienced might have been avoided, and the railways 
might have been laid down and worked at considerably 
less cost, and with a large addition to the national 
revenue. There is, however, so strong a disinclina- 
tion in this country to the centralization of Govern- 
ment power, and to the extension of Government in- 
fluence, that the people generally had rather submit 
to considerable inconvenience and expense, than 
tolerate the system of railway management which 



54 GREAT FACTS. 

has been adopted on the Continent. The necessity 
of interference, to protect the interests of the public, 
has nevertheless compelled the Government, though 
late, to adopt measures for controlling the manage- 
ment of the railway companies, and stringent regu- 
lations are now imposed with a view to prevent un- 
necessary danger to railway passengers. 

The railway system of Great Britain, though estab- 
lished entirely by private enterprise, represents an 
amount of capital equal to one-third of the national 
debt, and nearly 100,000 individuals are directly em- 
ployed in conducting the traffic on the various rail- 
ways in this kingdom. An idea of the vastness of 
these undertakings, and the important interests in- 
volved in them, may be formed from the following 
facts, stated by Mr. Robert Stephenson, at the Insti- 
tution of Civil Engineers : — 

'' The railways of Great Britain and Ireland, com- 
pleted at the beginning of 1856, extended 8,054 miles, 
and more than enough of single rails were laid to 
make a belt round the globe. The cost of constructing 
these railways had been £286,000,000. The working 
stock comprised 5,000 locomotive engines and 150,- 
000 carriages and trucks ; and the coal consumed an- 
nually by the engines amounted to 2,000,000 tons, so 
that in every minute 4 tons of coal flashed into steam 
20 tons of water. In 1854 there were 111 millions of 
passengers conveyed on railways, each passenger 
travelling an average of 12 miles. The receipts dur- 
ing 1854 amounted to £20,215,000 ; and there was 
no instance on record in which the receipts of a rail- 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 55 

way had not been of continuous growth, even where 
portions of the traffic had been abstracted by new 
lines. The wear and tear of the railways was, at the 
same time, enormous. For instance, 20,000 tons of 
iron rails required to be annually replaced, and 26 
millions of wooden sleepers perished in the same time. 
To supply this number of sleepers, 300,000 trees were 
felled, the growth of which would require little less 
than 5,000 acres of forest land. The cost of running 
was about fifteen pence per mile, and an average 
train will carry 200 passengers. Without railways, 
the penny post could not have been established, be- 
cause the old mail coaches would have been unable 
to carry the mass of letters and newspapers that are 
now transmitted. Every Friday night, when the 
weekly papers are published, eight or ten carts are 
required for Post Office bags on the ISTorth-Western 
Railway alone, and would hence require 14 or 15 
mail coaches." 

Adverting to other advantages derived from rail- 
way locomotion, Mr. Stephenson noticed the com- 
parative safety of that mode of travelling. Railway 
accidents occurred to passengers in the first half of 
1854 in the proportion of only one accident to every 
7,194,343 travellers. As regards the saving of time, 
he estimated that on every journey, averaging 12 
miles in length, an hour was saved to 111 millions of 
passengers per annum, which was equal to 38,000 
years, reckoning eight working hours per day ; and 
allowing each man an average of 3s. a day for his 
work, the saving of time might be valued at £2,000,- 



56 GREAT FACTS. 

000 a year. There were 90,000 persons employed 
directly, and 40,000 collaterally, on railways ; and 
130,000 men, with their families, represent 500,000 
so that 1 in 50 of the entire population of the king- 
dom might be said to be dependent for their subsis- 
tence on railways. 

Every year adds to the extent of the railway sys- 
tem, and to the increase of the traffic, so that con- 
siderable addition should be made to the amounts 
stated by Mr. Stephenson to represent the state of 
railway enterprise and railway traffic at the present 
day. The traffic returns for the week ending the 25th 
of September, 1858, amounted to £502,720 ; and the 
gross receipts of the railways in 1857 were £24,174,- 
610. The railways now open for traffic in England, 
Scotland, and Ireland extended to upwards of 9,000 
miles, and the lines reported to be in the course of 
construction amount to one-ninth the length of those 
completed. 

In estimating the importance and advantage of 
railway travelling, there must not be omitted its 
cheapness and comfort, compared with travelling by 
stage coach. There are some persons, indeed, who 
look back with regret to the old coaching days ; and 
it must be admitted that railways have taken away 
nearly all the romance of travelling, and much of the 
exhilarating pleasure that was experienced w^hen 
passing through a beautiful country on the top of a 
well-horsed coach in fine weather. The many inci- 
dents and adventures that gave variety to the journey 
were pleasant enough for a short distance ; but two 
days and a night on the top of a coach, exposed to 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 57 

cold and rain, or cramped up inside, with no room to 
stir the body or the legs, was accompanied with an 
amount of suffering which those who have experienced 
it would willingly exchange for a seat, even in a 
third-class railway carriage. In a national and in a 
social point of view, also, railways have produced im- 
portant improvements. They tend to equalize the 
value of land throughout the kingdom, by bringing 
distant sources of supply nearer the points of con- 
sumption ; they have given extraordinary stimulus 
to manufacturing industry; and by connecting all 
parts of the country more closely together, railway 
communication has concentrated the energies of the 
people, and has thus added materially to their wealth, 
their comforts, and to social intercourse. 

I^or must we, in noticing the grand invention of 
locomotion on railways, omit to mention some of the 
many subsidiary works which have been created 
during its progress towards perfection, and which have 
contributed to its success. Tunnels, of a size never 
before contemplated, have penetrated for miles through 
hard rocks, or through shifting clays and sands ; em- 
bankments and viaducts have been raised and erected, 
on a scale of magnitude that surpasses any former 
similar works ; bridges of various novel kinds, invented 
and constructed for the special occasions, carry the 
railways over straits of the sea, through gigantic tubes ; 
across rivers, suspended from rods supported by inge- 
niously devised piers and girders ; and over slanting 
roads, on iron beams or on brick arches built askew. 
As to the locomotive engines, though the principle of 
3* 



58 GREAT FACTS. 

construction remains the same, tlie numerous patents 
that have been obtained attest that invention has been 
active in introducing various improvements in the 
details of construction, to facilitate their working, and 
to increase their power. The various plans that have 
been contrived for improving the structure of the 
wheels and axles, for the application of breaks, for 
deadening the eflFect of collisions, for making signals, 
for the forms of the rails, and for the modes of fasten- 
ing them to the road, are far too many to be enumer- 
ated. 

In addition to the innumerable contrivances that 
have been invented for the improvement of the work- 
ing of ordinary railways, several distinct systems of 
railway locomotion have been introduced to public 
notice, some of which seemed very feasible, though they 
have nearly all gradually disappeared. Of these, the 
Atmospheric railway was the most promising, and for 
a time it bid fair to supersede the use of locomotive 
engines. The propulsion of the carriages, by the 
pressure of the atmosphere acting on an attached piston 
working in a vacuum tube, possessed many theoretical 
advantages, and if it could be applied economically, 
railway travelling would become more pleasant and 
more free from danger than it is. On several lines of 
railway the atmospheric plan was put into operation, 
but owing to the expense of working, it was graduallj^ 
abandoned. The short line from Kingston to Dalky, 
in Ireland, up a steep incline, was favourable to the 
working of the atmospheric railway, and there it con- 
tinued to linger for some time after it had been aban- 
doned elsewhere. 



STEAM CARRIAGES AND RAILWAYS. 59 

It is to be regretted that the atmospheric railway 
should have failed in economical working, for it pos- 
sessed greater advantages for general traffic than the 
ordinary locomotive railway trains ; and it is probable 
that if the same amount of inventive power and in- 
dustry, which have been bestowed in improving 
locomotive engines, had been directed to overcome 
the difficulties of atmospheric traction, it might have 
proved economically successful. 

The facility of travelling by railway has excited a 
spirit of locomotion before undreamed of. Instead of 
the diminished demand for horses which was appre- 
hended when railways displaced stage coaches, public 
conveyances have increased a hundredfold. We can 
now scarcely conceive the time when there was not 
an omnibus in the streets of London, yet, scarcely 
more than thirty j^ears ago, they were unknown, and 
travelling by stage carriages from one part of the 
town to another was prohibited by law ! On their 
first introduction, omnibuses were considered absurd- 
ities, and were ridiculed as " painted hearses." The 
present omnibus traffic in London alone amounts to 
nearly £20,000 per week. 



THE AIR E^GIKE. 

l^UMERous attempts have been made to supersede 
steam as a motive power, with the view to avoid the 
loss of heat by its absorption in the steam in a latent 
state. Mercurj vapour and spirit vapour have been 
tried, in the expectation that as they possess much 
less capacity for heat, an equal pressure might be ob- 
tained, with a diminished loss of heating power. 
Several gaseous agents have been applied to the same 
purpose, of which carbonic acid gas seemed to present 
the best prospect of success, because it becomes ex- 
panded with a comparatively small increase of tem- 
perature. None of these attempts to produce a motive 
power superior to steam have yet proved successful. 
They have all, after a short season of promise, dropped 
out of notice; and the only one that is still in the field, 
struggling for superiority, is the air engine. 

The first known air engine was invented by Sir 
George Cayley, in 1803. In his engine the air was 
heated by passing directly through the hot coals of the 
furnace, which some eno^ineers vet consider to be the 
best mode of expansion ; but its operation did not an- 
swer expectations. Mr. D. Stirling, of Dundee, after- 



THE AIR ENGINE. 61 

wards improved on Sir George Cayley's plan, and 
introduced a method of regaining the heat from the 
expanded air, after it had done its work in the cylin- 
der, and of applying it to expand the air again. 
Engines on this construction have been for some years 
Avorking in Scotland, and in 1850 Mr. Stirling took out 
a patent for an improvement in the arrangement, 
which is stated to have been very successful. 

Though Sir George Cayley and Mr. Stirling were 
the first in the field as inventors of air engines, the 
name of Mr. Ericsson, an American, is more closely 
associated with the invention, as he has for many years 
been conducting experiments on a large scale, and has 
tried his '' caloric engine " on land, and on a ship of 
large burthen, built for the purpose. 

The principle and the working of Mr. Ericsson's 
caloric engine is nearly the same as Mr. Stirling's ; 
but as it has been brought most prominently into no- 
tice, we shall direct attention more particularly to its 
construction and performances. Mr. Ericsson obtained 
a patent for his caloric engine in this country in 1833, 
and a subsequent patent for improvements on it was 
taken out in 1851. During those years, and to a late 
period, he was indefatigably working out the principle, 
and numerous highly favourable reports have from 
time to time been made of the results of the exper- 
iments ; but the advantages to be derived from the 
air engine remain nevertheless very questionable. 

Tlie object attempted to be gained is to make the 
same heating power do its work again and again. 
Atmospheric air, after being expanded by passing over 



62 GREAT FACTS. 

an extensive hot surface, exerts the force thus acquired 
to raise the piston of a large cylinder, and it is then 
attempted to abstract the heat as the air issues out, and 
to apply it to the expansion of a further quantity. 

The practicability of this plan has undergone much 
discussion ; its friends and foes being equally confident 
in their opinions. The former pronounce it to be one 
of the most valuable inventions of the age, being cal- 
culated to economize heat, and to give greatly addi- 
tional impulse to navigation ; whilst its opponents 
declare that the calculations are erroneous, the exper- 
iments fallacious, and that the expanded air consumes 
more heating power than steam. 

In one of the favourable notices of Mr. Ericsson's 
engine in an American publication, it is thus described: 
— " Two caloric engines have been constructed in 
JSTew York, one of 5-horse power, the other of 60. 
The latter has four cylinders ; two of 6 feet diameter, 
placed side by side, surmounted by two of much 
smaller size. Within are pistons, so connected that 
those in tlie lower and upper cylinders move together. 
A fire is placed under the bottom of the large cylin- 
ders, called the working cylinders ; those above are 
called the supply cylinders. As the piston in the 
supply cylinder moves down, valves at the top admit 
the air. As they rise, those valves close, and the air 
passes into a receiver and regenerator, where it is heat- 
ed to about 450°, and entering the next working 
cylinder, it is further heated by a fire underneath to 
485°. The air is thus expanded to double its volume; 
and supposing the supply cylinder to be half the size 



THE AIR ENGINE. 63 

of the other, the air, when expanded, will completely 
fill the larger cylinder. As the area of the piston of 
the smaller cylinder will be only half that of the 
larger, and as the air will be of the same pressure in 
both, the total pressure on the piston of the large 
cylinder will be double that on the small one. This 
surplus furnishes the working power of the engine. 
After the air in the working cylinder has forced up 
the piston within it, a valve opens ; and as the air 
passes out, the piston descends by gravity, and cold 
air rushes in, and fills the supplj^ cylinder. 

" The most striking feature is the regenerator. It 
is composed of wire net, placed together to a thick- 
ness of about 12 inches. The side of the regenerator, 
near the working cylinder, is heated to a high tempe- 
rature. The air passes through it before entering the 
working cylinder, and becomes heated to 450°. The 
additional heat of 30° is communicated by the fire 
underneath to the large cylinder. The expanded air 
forces the cylinder upwards, valves open, and it pass- 
es from the cylinder, and again enters the regenera- 
tor. One side of the regenerator is kept cool by the 
air on its entering in the opposite direction at each 
stroke of the piston ; consequently, as the air of the 
working cylinder passes out, the wires abstract its 
heat so effectually, that when it leaves the regenera- 
tor, it has been robbed of all except about 30°. In 
other words, as the air passes into the working cjdin- 
der, it gradually receives from the regenerator about 
450° of heat ; and as it passes out, this is returned to 
the wires, and it is thus used over and over again ; 



64 GREAT FACTS. 

the only purpose of the fires beneath the cylinders 
being to supply the 30° of heat which are lost by 
radiation and expansion. 

" The regenerator in the 60-horse engine measures 
26 inches in height and width. Each disc of wire 
composing it contains 676 superficial square inches, 
and the net has 10 meshes to the inch. Each super- 
ficial inch, therefore, contains 100 meshes, and there 
are 67,600 in each disc ; and as 200 discs are em- 
ployed, the regenerator contains 13,520,000 meshes, 
with an equal number of small spaces between the 
discs as there are meshes ; therefore, the air is distrib- 
uted into 27,000,000 of minute cells. The wire in 
each disc is 1,140 feet long ; and the total length of 
wire in the regenerator is 41-^ miles, or equal to the 
surface of four steam boilers, each 40 feet long and 4 
feet diameter." 

The accounts received from America of the great 
success that had attended the working of Mr. 
Ericsson's air engine,on the ship " Ericsson," attract- 
ed much attention in this country, and formed the 
subject of two evenings' discussion in the Institution 
of Civil Engineers. The most prevalent opinion was, 
that it is impossible to regain the heating power 
without corresponding loss of mechanical force or the 
addition of heat, and that there must have been some 
fallacy in tlie reports of the work done and of the 
quantity of fuel consumed. 

It is, indeed, evident that nothing approaching 
the amount of heat said to have been recovered could 
be regained by passing through the regenerator ; for 



THE AIR ENGINE. 65 

as the apparatus becomes lieated by tlie first portions 
of air passing through it, the temperature of the quan- 
tity that afterwards passed must at least be equal to 
that of the heated wires, and the last portions of air 
would consequently scarcely part with any caloric to 
the regenerator, previously lieated to nearly its own 
temperature. Experience has since proved that the 
notion of regaining the heat by the regenerator was 
fallacious, for in the last improvements in Mr. 
Ericsson's engine, it is stated that the regenerator has 
been abandoned, and the plan lias been adopted of 
cooling the air as it issues from the large cylinder, 
by passing it through tubes surrounded by cold 
water, and then using the same air over again. 

One great practical inconvenience in the use of 
the air engine w^as the necessity ot having enormously 
large cylinders to attain the required power, with the 
low amount of pressure that can be procured by the 
expansion of the air. The consequent friction in- 
creased the loss of power, and the difiiculty of lubri- 
cating the pistons added to the practical objections to 
the air engine. To overcome these objections, the 
air in Mr. Stirling's engine is compressed before it is 
heated, by which means an equal amount of pressure 
is obtained on a smaller piston. 

The air engine would in many respects possess 
advantages over the steam engine, if it could be 
worked economically. The space occupied by the 
boilers would be saved, and the danger of explosions 
would be avoided ; for hot air does not scald, and the 
quantity at any time expanded would be too small to 
do much injuiy. 



66 GREAT FACTS. 

A patent has since been obtained by Messrs. 
l^apier and Rankin e, for improvements in the air 
engine, which they anticipated would remove the ob- 
jections that have been raised to the engines of Stir- 
ling and Ericsson. The heating surface has been 
greatly increased by employing tubes ; and other de- 
fects in the former engines, to which their want of 
complete success is attributed, have been remedied, 
so that Mr. Eankine, in his description of the im- 
provements at the meeting of the British Association 
at Liverpool, confidently anticipated to effect a great 
saving of heating power, combined with the other ad- 
vantages of the air engine. He estimated the con- 
sumption of fuel by a theoretically perfect air engine 
on Mr. Stirling's principle at 0-37 lbs. per horse 
power per hour ; w^hilst a tlieoretically perfect steam 
engine would consume 1*86 lbs. The actual average 
consumption of a steam engine is, however, 4 lbs. of 
fuel per horse power per hour, and the actual con- 
sumption of Stirling's engine is stated by Mr. Ean- 
kine to have been 2*20 lbs, and that of Ericsson's 2*80 
lbs. It appears from this statement, therefore, that 
the air engines of Messrs. Stirling and Ericsson are 
superior in point of economy of fuel to steam engines ; 
and if Mr. Rankine's anticipations of the superiority 
of his air engine be realized, it will effect still greater 
economy. In Messrs. ISTapier and Rankine's engine, 
the air is compressed before expansion, so that the 
size of the cylinders may be reduced to even smaller 
dimensions than the cylinders of steam engines of 
equal power. 



PHOTOGEAPHY. 

The power we now possess of fixing the transient 
impression of the rays of light, and of retaining the 
beautiful images of the camera obscura, is perhaps 
the most astonishing of the present age of wonders. 
Effects similar to those of the electric telegraph, of 
steam navigation, of dissolving views, and of other 
wondrous realizations of inventive genius, had been 
anticipated in growing tales of Eastern romance 
centuries ago ; but the most fanciful imagination had 
not conceived the possibility of making Nature her 
ow^n artist, and of producing, in the twinkling of an 
eye, a permanent representation of all the objects 
comprehended within the range of vision. 

Such an idea could scarcely have occurred until 
after the invention of the camera obscura ; but when 
looking at the beautiful pictures focused on the screen 
of that instrument, it became an object of longing 
desire to fix them there. 

To trace the history of Photography from its ear- 
liest beginnings, we must go back to the days of the 
alchemists, who were the discoverers of the influence 
of light in darkening the salts of silver, on w^hich all 



68 GREAT FACTS. 

photograpliic processes on paper depend. That prop- 
erty of light was noticed in 1566, and it induced the 
speculative philosophers of that day to conceive that 
luminous rays contained a sulphurous principle which 
transmitted the forms of matter. Homberg, more 
than a century afterwards, misled by this action of 
the sun's rays, supposed that they insinuated them- 
selves into the particles of bodies, and increased their 
weight; and Sir Isaac Newton also entertained a 
similar opinion. 

The influence of the solar rays in facilitating the 
crystallization of saltpetre and sal ammoniac, was 
shown by Petit in 1722 ; and in 1777, the distin- 
guished chemist Scheele discovered that the violet 
rays of the spectrum possess greater power in pro- 
ducing those changes than any other. A solution of 
nitrate of silver, then called " the acid of silver," was 
known to be peculiarly susceptible to the action of 
those rays. The experiment by which it was illus- 
trated consisted in pouring the solution on chalk, 
which became blackened by exposure to light. 
These discoveries were made by Scheele in his en- 
deavours to find in light the source of " phlogiston " 
— that ignis fatuus of the chemists of the last cen- 
tury. We thus perceive, in the first steps towards the 
invention of Photography, one of the many instances 
of the discovery of truth in the search after error. 

At the beginning of the present century, Mr. 
Wedgwood, the celebrated porcelain manufacturer, 
undertook a series of experiments to fix the images of 
the camera, assisted by Mr. (afterwards Sir Humphry) 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 69 

Davy. They so far succeeded as to impress the 
images on the screen, but unfortunately they had not 
the power of preserving the paper from being black- 
ened all over when exposed for a short time to the 
light. "JSTothing," said Sir Humphry Davy, in his 
account of these experiments, " but a method of pre- 
venting the unshaded parts of the delineation from 
being coloured by exposure to light is wanting to 
render this process as useful as it is elegant." 

It was in June, 1802, that Mr. T. Wedgw^ood pub- 
lished " an account of a method of copying paintings 
on glass, and of making proHles by the agency of 
light ; with observations by H. Davy." Mr. Wedg- 
wood made use of white paper or white leather, moist- 
ened with a solution of nitrate of silver. The follow- 
ing description of the process, contributed to the 
" Journals of the Eoyal Institution " by Davy, will be 
read w^ith interest, as showing how closely these ex- 
periments approximated to the photogenic process, 
invented by Mr. Talbot thirty-six years afterwards : — 

'' White paper or white leather moistened with a 
solution of nitrate of silver undergoes no change in a 
dark place ; but on being exposed to daylight, it 
speedily changes colour, and after passing through 
different shades of grey and browm, becomes at length 
nearly black ; the alterations of colour take place 
more speedily in proportion as the light is more in- 
tense. In the direct rays of the sun, two or three 
minutes are sufficient to produce the full effect. In 
the shade, several hours are required ; and light trans- 
mitted through different coloured glasses acts on it 



70 GREAT FACTS. 

with different degrees of intensity. Tims it is found 
that red rays, or the common sunbeams passed 
through red glass, have very little action on it. Yel- 
low or green are more efficacious ; but blue and violet 
light produce the most decided and powerful effects. 

" When the shadow^ of any figure is thrown on the 
prepared surfaced, the part concealed by it remains 
white, and the other parts speedily become dark. 
For copying paintings on glass, the solution should be 
applied on leather, and in this case it is more readily 
acted on than when paper is used. "When the colour 
has been once fixed on leather or paper, it cannot be 
removed by the application of water, or water and 
soap, and it is in a high degree permanent. The 
copy of a painting or a profile, immediately after be- 
ing taken, must be kept in a dark place. It may, 
indeed, be examined in the shade, but in this case the 
exposure should only be for a few minutes ; by the 
light of candles or lamps, it is not sensibly affected. 
'No attempts that have been made to prevent the un- 
coloured parts of the copy or profile from being acted 
upon by light, have as yet been successful. They 
have been covered with a coating of fine varnish, but 
this has not destroyed their susceptibility of becoming 
coloured ; and even after repeated washings, sufficient 
of the active part of the saline matter will still adhere 
to the white parts of the leather or paper, to cause 
them to become dark when exposed to the rays of 
the sun. 

" The woody fibres of leaves, and the wings of in- 
sects, may be pretty accurately copied ; and in this 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 71 

case it is only necessary to cause the direct solar 
light to pass through them, and to receive the shadows 
on prepared leather. Images formed by means of 
the camera obscura have been found too faint to pro- 
duce, in any moderate time, an effect on nitrate of 
silver. To copy those images was the first object of 
Mr. Wedgwood in his researches on this subject, and 
for this purpose he first used the nitrate of silver, 
which was mentioned to him by a friend as a sub- 
stance very sensible to the influence of light ; but all 
his numerous experiments, as to their primary end, 
proved unsuccessful." 

It will be seen, from the foregoing account of the 
results of their experiments, that Mr. Wedgwood's 
process and the early processes of Mr. Talbot were 
nearly alike ; and if he had possessed the means which 
the compound salt hyposulphite of soda afibrded to 
subsequent photographers, of destroying the sensibility 
of the prepared paper to further impressions of the 
rays of light, there can be little doubt that the inven- 
tion would have attained a high degree of perfection 
at the commencement of the present century. As it 
was, the failure of Mr. Wedgwood to accomplish the 
object he was so nearly attaining appears to have 
discouraged attempts by others, and twenty years 
elapsed without any advance having been made to- 
wards its realization. 

M. Niepce, of Chalons on the Saone, who was the 
first to succeedin obtaining permanent representations 
of the images of the camera, commenced experiment- 
ing on the subject in 1814, at least ten years before 



72 GREAT FACTS. 

M. Daguerre directed his attention to Photography. 
In 1826 these two gentlemen became acquainted, and 
conjointly prosecuted the investigations which led to 
the beautiful result of the Daguerreotype. M. Niepce 
having previously succeeded in obtaining durable 
representations of the pictures focused in the camera, 
he came to this country in 1827, and exhibited several 
of the results of his process, and communicated to the 
Royal Society an account of his experiments. These, 
photographs, wdiich may be considered the first du- 
rable ones that had been obtained, w^ere, w^ith one 
exception, taken on plates made of pewter. One of 
the largest was 5^ inches long and 4 inches wide. It 
was taken from a print 2i feet in length, representing 
the ruins of an abbey. When seen in a proper light, 
the impression appeared very distinct. Another one, 
which was stated to have been the first successful at- 
tempt, was a view taken from nature, representing a 
court-yard. Its size was 7i inches by 6 inches, but it 
was not so distinct as the preceding one. A tliird 
specimen was an impression on paper, printed from 
a photogi^aph on metal^ the picture having been etched 
into the plate by nitric acid, and then printed from. 
All these specimens, though extremely curious as the 
first successful attempts to preserve the images of the 
camera, were more or less imperfect, and w^ere far 
from presenting the beautiful results of Photography 
now attained. It is remarkable, however, that the 
original process of etching the picture on a metal 
plate, and printing from it, has now, in the perfected 
state of the art, become the most recent improvement; 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 73 

and the prints from photographic plates present some 
of the most beautiful effects hitherto produced.^ 

M. Niepce communicated the particulars of his 
process to M. Daguerre in December, 1829. They 
then entered into an agreement to pursue their inves- 
tigations jointly, but it was not until ten years after- 
wards that the invention of the Daguerreotype by 
M. Daugerre was made known. To M. Niepce must, 
therefore, be awarded the honour of having first dis- 
covered the means of rendering permanent the tran- 
sient images of the camera obscura. The plan he 
adopted was to cover a plate of white metal with 
asphalte varnish, and expose it to the action of light 
in a camera, when the parts whereon the light was 
concentrated became hardened, and the other parts 
remained unaltered, and could be washed away. 

In M. Niepce's account of the process, after de- 
scribing the preparation of the asphalte varnish, he 
says : — " A tablet of plated silver^ or well-cleaned and 
warm glass^ is to be highly polished, on which a thin 
coating of varnish is to be applied cold, with a light 
roll of very soft skin. This will impart to it a fine 
vermilion colour, and cover it with a very thin and 
equal coating. The plate is then placed on heated 
iron, which is wrapped round with several folds of 
paper, from which, by this method, all moisture has 
been previously expelled. When the varnish has 
ceased to simmer, the plate is withdrawn from the heat 

* The original photographs produced by M. Mepce are still pre- 
served in good condition, and were last year exhibited at the Royal 
Institution. 

4 



74 GKEAT FACTS. 

and left to cool and dry in a gentle temperature, and 
protected from a damp atmosphere. The plate, thus 
prepared, may be immediately subjected to the action 
of the luminous fluid in the focus of the camera ; but 
even after having been thus exposed a length of time 
sufficient for receiving the impressions of external ob- 
jects, nothing is apparent to show that these impres- 
sions exist. The forms of the future picture remain 
still invisible. The next operation then is to disengage 
the shrouded image, and this is accomplished by a 
solvent." 

The solvent employed was a mixture of one part 
of oil of lavender, and ten parts of oil of petroleum. 
The solvent was poured over the plate, and allowed 
to remain. M. Niepce continues : " The operator, 
observing it by reflected light, begins to perceive the 
images of the objects to which it has been exposed 
gradually unfolding their forms, though still veiled by 
the supernatant fluid, continually becoming darker 
from saturation with the varnish.^' 

The time required for the exposure of the plates in 
the camera was six or eight hours. For the purpose 
of darkening the pictures, M. Niepce used iodine, and 
it has been supposed that the use of iodine for that 
purpose suggested the employment of it to his partner. 
The process adopted by M. Daguerre was, to de- 
posit a film of iodine on a highly polished silver plate, 
by exposing the plate to the vapour of iodine in a dark 
box. The prepared plate was then placed in the 
camera, and after an exposure of ten^iiinutes or more, 
according to the brightness of the day, an impression 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 75 

was made on the iodised silver, but too faint to be 
visible. To bring out the image thus invisibly im- 
pressed, the plate was exposed to the vapour of mer- 
cury, in a closed box. The mercury adhered to the 
parts on which the light had acted, and left the other 
parts of the plate untouched ; and by this means a 
beautiful representation was produced, in which the 
deposited mercury represented the lights of the pic- 
ture, and the polished silver the shadows. The iodised 
silver remaining on the plate not acted on by light, 
was washed away by a solution of hyposulphite of 
soda, and the picture could then be exposed without 
injury. 

Nothing can exceed the delicacy of delineation by 
such a Daguerreotype ; for the fine surface of the 
highly polished silver seems to exhibit the impressions 
of the smallest objects that emit rays of light. The 
length of time required to produce an impression was, 
however, a serious obstacle to the use of the process, 
as originally invented, for taking portraits. Numerous 
attempts were consequently made to obtain a more 
sensitive material. Bromine was tried, in addition to 
iodine, and with such complete success, that a few 
seconds were sufficient to effect an impression on the 
plate, which could be forcibly brought out by the va- 
pour of mercury. 

It was in 1840 that portraits were first taken by 
the Daguerreotype process in this country. In the 
first instance, a concave mirror was employed to con- 
centrate the rays of light on the plate, instead of a 
lens ; and the author has now in his possession a 



76 GREAT FACTS. 

portrait taken in this manner, by " Wolcott's reflecting 
apparatus." The object of using a concave mirror 
was to be able to concentrate a greater number of the 
rays of light than could be done by a lens, and thus 
to form a brighter image. At the time that portrait 
was taken, the means had not been discovered of 
making the mercury adhere to the plate, and a feather 
would brush it away. Soon afterwards, however, M. 
Fizeau ingeniously contrived to fix the images on the 
plate by gilding it. This was done by pouring on to 
the plate a few drops of a diluted solution of muriate 
of gold, and holding it horizontally over the flame of 
a spirit lamp ; by which means the gold was deposited 
and formed a thin, beautiful film of the metal over the 
surface, and thus not only made the picture more du- 
rable, but gave it increased effect. 

The French government, fully appreciating the 
importance of the invention, determined to purchase 
it from the patentee, and to throw it open to the pub- 
lic. An account of the invention was published in 
June, 1839 ; and in the following month an arrange- 
ment was entered into, to the effect that, in consider- 
ation of M. Daguerre making the process fully known, 
a pension of 6,000 francs should be granted to him for 
life, and a pension of 4,000 francs to M. Isidore 
Niepce, the nephew of the original inventor of Photo- 
graphy, his uncle having died before the final success 
was attained. 

It was generally supposed at the time, that by the 
grant of those pensions the invention was thrown open 
to the whole world, as represented by the French 



PHOTOaRAPHY. 77 

Minister; but, nevertheless, M. Daguerre patented 
tlie process in other countries, and France alone reaped 
the benefit of a free use of the invention. 

Whilst M. Daguerre was thus successfully working 
out to perfection the plan of producing beautiful na- 
turally-impressed pictures on iodised silver surfaces, 
Mr. Fox Talbot was at the same time nearly attaining 
the same results. The following is the account given 
by himself of his researches i"^ — " Having in the year 
1834 discovered the principles of Photography on 
paper, I some time afterwards made some experiments 
on metal plates ; and in 1838 I discovered a method 
of rendering a silver plate sensitive to light, by ex- 
posing it to iodine vapours. I was at that time, there- 
fore, treading in the footsteps of M. Daguerre, without 
knowing that he, or indeed any other person, was 
pursuing, or had commenced or thought of, the art 
which we now call Photography. But as I was not 
aware of the power of mercurial vapour to bring 
out the latent impressions, I found my plates of io- 
dised silver deficient in sensibility, and therefore con- 
tinued to use in preference my photogenic drawing 
paper. This was in 1838. Some time after — in 
August, 1839 — M. Daguerre published an account of 
his perfected process, which reached us during the 
meeting of the British Association ; and I took the 
opportunity to lay before the Section the facts which 
I had myself ascertained in Metallic Photography.'^ 

Whilst to M. Daguerre must be awarded the hon- 

*" Philosophical Magazine, " February, 1843. 



78 GREAT FACTS. 

our of having first brought to perfection the method 
of rendering permanent the images of the camera on 
metal plates, Mr. Fox Talbot may claim to be the 
first who perfected similar images on paper, which the 
comparative roughness of the surface alone prevented 
from being as delicately beautiful as the pictures of 
the Daguerreotype. He commenced his experiments 
in Photography in 1834 ; and on the 31st of January, 
1839, he read a paper before the Eoyal Society, enti- 
tled, " Some Account of the Art of Photogenic 
Drawing ; or, a process by which natural objects may 
be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the 
artist's pencil." 

Mr. Talbot had not then succeeded in obtaining 
the impressions of images focused in the camera ; what 
he had succeeded in doing was to fix upon paper the 
shadows of objects placed upon it, and exposed to the 
light of the sun. The paper was first dipped into a 
solution of common salt, and then wiped dry, to 
diffuse the salt uniformly through the substance of the 
paper. A solution of nitrate of silver was then spread 
over one surface with a soft brush, and dried carefully 
before a fire in a darkened room. The strength of the 
solution was regulated by first obtaining a saturated 
solution of the nitrate of silver, and afterwai'ds diluting 
it with six or eight times its volume of water. The 
objects to be copied, such as leaves, lace, or other flat 
surfaces, were pressed against the prepared paper by 
a glass fixed in a frame, and exposure to light quickly 
darkened all the parts of the paper, excepting those 
shaded by the objects. The image thus impressed 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 79 

was what is termed a " negative, " the dark parts 
wliich excluded the light being left white on the 
paper, and the parts through which the light passed 
being darkened. To produce a picture corresponding 
with the natural lights and shades, the process was 
repeated, substituting the picture first obtained, on 
thin transparent paper, for the original object, hj 
which means the lights and shadows were reversed. 

The chloride of silver, formed on the surface of 
the sensitive paper by the combination of the common 
salt and nitrate of silver, being insoluble in water, 
great difiiculty was experienced in washing it away, 
so as to prevent the whole surface from afterwards 
darkening on exposure to light. The application of 
hyposulphite of soda, for the purpose of making the 
pictures durable, was suggested by Sir John Herschel, 
and it answers remarkably well, as it dissolves the chlo- 
ride of silver. A solution of ammonia is nearly 
equally efficacious in removing the chloride. 

The Calotype process, by which the images of the 
camera can be fixed upon paper, was invented by Mr. 
Talbot, in 1840. It is thus described : — Dissolve 100 
grains of crystallized nitrate of silver in 6 ounces of 
distilled water. Procure some fine writing paper, and 
wash one side of it with the solution, laid on with a 
soft brush ; then dry the paper cautiously, by holding 
it at a distance from the fire. When dry, dip the 
paper into a solution of iodide of potassium, containing 
600 grains dissolved in 1 pint of water, and let it re- 
main in the solution two or three minutes. Then dip 
it into a vessel of water ; remove the water on the 



80 GREAT FACTS. 

surface by blotting paper, and dry it by a fire, in the 
dark or by candle-light. The paper thus prepared is 
called " iodised paper ; " it is not very sensitive to 
light, and may be kept for some time without spoiling. 
Next dissolve 100 grains of crystallized nitrate of sil- 
ver in 2 ounces of distilled water; add to the solution 
one-sixth of its volume of strong acetic acid, and call 
that mixture A. Then make a strong solution of 
crystallized gallic acid in cold water, and let that so- 
lution be called B. Mix equal volumes of A and B 
together in small quantities at a time. That mixture 
Mr. Talbot calls gallo-nitrate of silver, and with it 
wash over the surface of the iodised paper. Allow 
the paper to remain half a minute, and then dip it into 
water, and again dry it lightly with blotting paper. 
The paper thus prepared is very sensitive, and will 
receive an impression in the camera in the shortest 
possible time. The impression is at first invisible, 
but it may be brought out by laying the paper aside 
in the dark, or by washing it once more in the gallo- 
nitrate of silver, and holding it at a short distance from 
the fire. To fix the picture, the paper is first washed 
in water and lightly dried, and then soaked in a so- 
lution of hyposulphite of soda for a few minutes, by 
which means the iodised silver is removed, and after 
being again washed in water and dried, the process is 
completed. The picture thus produced is a negative 
one, and requires to be transferred in the manner 
before stated. The original Calotype may, by that 
means, ser^'e to produce a great number of pictures. 
Mr. Talbot's patent was sealed on the 8th of 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 81 

•Febniaiy, 1841. In his specification, he claimed the 
use of gallic acid, and he succeeded in enforcing his 
claim in a Court of Law, though it appeared that on 
the 10th of April, 1839, photographs of objects taken 
in the solar microscope in five minutes, by the Rev. 
J. B. Eeade, were shown at the London institution, 
which were described to have been produced by an 
infusion of galls, and fixed with hyposulphite of 
soda. It must be mentioned, however, to Mr. Tal- 
bot's honour, that on a representation to him by 
the President of the Royal Society that the art of 
Photography was impeded in its progress in this 
country by patent monopolies, he generously made a 
present to the public of all his inventions and dis- 
coveries, reserving to himself only the privilege of 
taking portraits. 

The transfer from one paper to another of the 
picture obtained in the camera, and the compara- 
tive roughness of the surface of the paper itself, 
prevent Calotypes from exhibiting that sharpness 
and delicacy of definition which are so admirable in 
a Daguerreotype. Several attempts were therefore 
made to obtain a more smooth surface for the re- 
ception of the image ; but without much success, 
until glass was adopted for the purpose. To make 
that material available, it is necessary to coat it with 
some substance that will absorb the sensitive solu- 
tion. In the fii-st instance, the white of eggs was 
employed with considerable success. Albumen has, 
however, been supplanted by collodion — a solution 
of gun-cotton in ether — which is found to be pe- 
4* 



82 GREAT FACTS. 

culiarlj^ suitable for the reception of the sensitive 
preparation of silver. 

In conducting the collodion process, the collodion 
is first iodised by adding to it iodide of potassium 
and iodide of silver, dissolved in alcohol. The iodised 
collodion is then poured over a plate of glass that 
has been carefully cleaned, and is moved about hori- 
zontally until a perfectly uniform film is spread over 
the surface, to which it adheres firmly. The plate is 
afterwards dipped into a solution of nitrate of silver, 
which renders it so highly sensitive to impressions 
of light, that it will receive an image in less than 
a second. The image is latent, until it is developed 
by pouring over the plate a mixture of pyro-gallic 
acid in distilled water, acetic acid, and nitrate of 
silver. The impression is fixed with hyposulphite of 
soda. 

The pictures produced by the collodion process 
are negatives, which serve admirably for transferring 
positive pictures on to sensitive paper. But, if re- 
quired, the negative picture can be readily changed 
into a positive one, by converting the darkened sil- 
ver into white metallic silver, by a mixture of pro- 
tosulphate of iron and pyro-gallic acid. In a short 
time a white metallic image is obtained, which, when 
relieved by a background of black velvet or black 
varnish, equals in delicacy of finish the most beau- 
tiful Daguerreotypes. 

Many attempts have been made, but hitherto 
without success, to obtain photographs coloured, as 
well as shaded, by nature. The opinions of those 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 83 

who have most studied the subject differ as to the 
possibility of ever attaining that desired object. Sir 
John Herschel has so far shown that it is not impos- 
sible, as to have impressed the colours of the solar 
spectrum on paper, by the mere action of light ; and 
parts of the images of objects fixed on the screen of 
the camera are also sometimes coloured. These facts 
induce us to hope that in the progress of discovery 
some means may be found of obtaining naturally- 
coloured photographs, notwithstanding it has been 
pronounced, by good authorities, to be an absolute 
impossibility. 

Specimens of coloured photographs were exhibit- 
ed by Mr. Mercer at the recent meeting of the 
British Association, which showed that by the use of 
various chemical preparations that are sensitive to 
light, photographs may be shaded in colours. The 
principal re-agents employed were salts of iron, and 
by immersing the paper in suitable menstrua, after 
the image had been impressed in the camera, the 
picture was developed in any colour required ; the 
same tint being spread over the whole. One par- 
pose to which it was suggested this coloured photo- 
graphic process is applicable, is printing on woven 
fabrics, the action of light serving as a mordant to 
fix the colours. 

Photography has been already applied to various 
uses, and it is capable of being rendered much more 
valuable. To the meteorologist it affords the means 
of registering the rise and fall of the mercury in the 
barometer and thermometer, and, by a self-registering 



84 GREAT FACTS. 

apparatus, the changes of temperature and of atmos- 
pheric pressure are marked upon paper that records 
the time at which the changes occur. It may also be 
applied, in the same manner, to register the direc- 
tions of the wind, and the times of its changes. The 
sun impresses his own image upon paper ; and the 
spots on his surface, thus correctly delineated, can 
be compared with those seen in pictures of the sun 
at other times ; and the foundation is laid for more 
correct knowledge of the nature of those appear- 
ances, and of the motion of the sun himself. Photo- 
graphs of the moon and planets present exact repre- 
sentations of those heavenly bodies, as seen through 
the most powerful telescope ; and, with the assistance 
of the stereoscope, the figure of the moon is shown in 
its true globular form, as it can be seen by no other 
means. It has been proposed, indeed, by the aid of 
Photography, to extend our knowledge of the stars 
far beyond the reach of telescopic vision ; for as the 
image focused on the screen of the camera is com- 
posed of rays from every object on the body of a star, 
it might be possible to see those objects by greatly 
magnifying the image. It remains, however, for the 
further progress of discovery and invention, to arrive 
at so delicate a delineation by photographic processes, 
as to obtain landscapes of the moon, and portraits of 
the inhabitants of Jupiter ! 

One of the latest advances in the art of Photo- 
graphy has been the engraving on steel-plates by the 
action of light, by which means more forcible effects 
have been obtained than by the impressions of light 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 85 

upon paper. Mr. Fox Talbot has distinguished him- 
self in thus fixing the images on steel, as he was the 
first to impress them upon paper. In his method of 
doing so, he covers the steel plate with a solution of 
isinglass and bichromate of potass, and placing a col- 
lodion negative picture upon it, he exposes it to the 
action of light. When the picture is sufficiently im- 
pressed, he etches it into the plate by means of bich- 
loride of platinum. M. Niepce, the nephew of the 
original inventor of Photography, has produced the 
same efi'ect by reviving the first processes adopted by 
his uncle ; using, as he did, bitumen, dissolved in es- 
sential oil of lavender, to cover the plates. Two 
other foreign photographers, M. Poitevin and M. 
Pretschi, have also successfully directed their atten- 
tion to engraving the images of the camera, which 
has now obtained a high degree of perfection. 

It is well worth notice that these most recent im- 
provements in Photography are but further develop- 
ments of the original designs of M. Is^iepce, who not 
only succeeded in etching the pictures impressed by 
the light of the sun on his metal tablets, but made 
use of a glass surface, on which the now generally 
adopted collodion process depends. 



DISSOLYING VIEWS. 

There are no optical illusions more extraordinary 
than those shown in the exhibition of Dissolving 
Yiews. The effects of the changes in the diorama are 
only such as are seen in nature, the same scene being 
represented under different circumstances, and the 
marvel in that case is that such beautiful and natural 
effects can be produced on the same canvas. But 
Dissolving Yiews set nature at defiance, and exhibit 
metamorphoses as great as can be conceived by the 
wildest fancy. 

Whilst, for instance, the spectator is looking at the 
interior of a church, he sees the objects gradually 
assuming different appearances. The columns that 
support the vaulted roof begin to fade away, and their 
places are occupied by other forms, w^hich gradually 
become better defined and stronger, and a tree, a 
house, or, it may be, a rock, thrusts the columns out 
of view, and the roof dims into blue sky, chequered 
with clouds. The original view^ thus entirely disap- 
pears, and the scene is changed from the interior of 
a church to open country, or to a rocky valley. This 



DISSOLVING VIEWS. 87 

is done, not by changing at once one scene into 
another, but by substituting different individual ob- 
jects, which at first appear like faint shadows, and 
then, becoming more and more vivid, at length alto- 
gether supplant their predecessors on the field of 
view, and will, in their turn, be extinguished by oth- 
ers. 

It sometimes happens that some strongly marked 
object resists apparently the efforts made to dispossess 
it, and in the midst of a mountainous scene will be 
observed the form of a chandelier or of a statue, that 
occupied a distinguished place in the church that has 
just vanished. In a short time, however, these relics 
disappear, and the mountain, the valley, and the lake 
are freed from the incongruous images of the former 
scene. 

These effects are produced in a manner as simple 
as they are extraordinary. All that is requisite is to 
have two magic lanterns fitted on to a stand, with 
their tubes inclined towards each other, so that both 
discs of light may exactly coincide, and form on the 
screen a single disc. If paintings on glass^, represent- 
ing different views, be then placed in each lantern, 
with the lenses adjusted to bring the rays to a focus 
on the screen, the two images will be so mingled to- 
gether as to present only a confused mixture of colours. 
Suppose one of the views to be the interior of a church, 
and the other to be a mountain scene ; — the pillars of 
the church will be mingled with trees and rocks, and 
in the midst of the confusion there may perhaps be 
discerned a strongly painted chandelier or an altar 



88 




DISSOLVING VIEWS. 



89 



piece. When an opaque shade is placed before the 
lens of either of the lanterns, to prevent the light 
from reaching the screen, the previous confusion be- 
comes instantly clear and distinct, and the church or 
the landscape is seen without any interfering images. 
If the opaque screen be gradually withdrawn from 
one lens, and at the same time drawn in an equal de- 
gree over the other, the different objects will again 
be mingled, and those in the one scene will predomi- 
nate over those in the other in proportion to the rela- 




tive quantities of light permitted to issue from each 
lantern to the screen. The two first of the accom- 
panying drawings are thus blended together in the 
third, when the screen is half withdrawn from each. 



90 GEEAT FACTS. 

It is usual to fix the opaque shade, which alter- 
nately covers and exposes the two magic lanterns, on 
to a central pin, so that it may be moved vertically 
up or down. The shade is so arranged, that in rais- 
ing the end to cover the lens of one lantern, the far- 
ther end descends, and exposes, in an equal degree, 
the other lens. During the time that either of the 
views is altogether concealed, the painting is changed; 
and in this manner an unlimited number of metamor- 
phoses may be effected. 

It requires no expensive apparatus to show the 
effect of Dissolving Yiews on a small scale. Two 
common magic lanterns are quite sufficient for the 
purpose of private exhibition, and the angle at which 
they should be fixed on their stand may be readily 
ascertained after a few trials. To make the trans- 
formation more extraordinary, a man's face may be 
painted on one glass and a landscape on the other ; 
and, when the change is made from the face to the 
landscape, a strongly painted eye or nose may be seen 
occupying the centre of the view, long after the other 
features have disappeared, until all the rays of light 
from that painting have been excluded. The change 
from youth to age, from beauty to ugliness, may also 
be shown with striking effect. 

It will be observed that the principle, on which 
the metamorphoses of Dissolving Yiews depend, is 
similar to that which produces the variations in the 
diorama. In both cases there are two paintings on 
the same space, either of which may be'"shown at 
pleasure by different dispositions of the light ; the 



DISSOLVING VIEWS. 91 

chief difference between them being that the Dissolv- 
ing Views are seen altogether by reflected light, 
whilst in the diorama the paintings at the back and 
front are shown alternately by reflected and by trans- 
mitted light. 



THE KALEIDOSCOPE. 

N'o invention, on being first bronglit out, created 
BO general a sensation as the Kaleidoscope. Every 
person, who could buy or make one, had a Kaleido- 
scope. Men, women, and children — rich and poor ; 
in houses or walking in the streets ; in carriages, or 
on coaches — were to be seen looking into the wonder- 
working tube, admiring the beautiful patterns it pro- 
duced, and the magical changes which the least 
movement of the glass occasioned. 

It was in the year 1814 that Sir David Brewster 
discovered the principle on which the effects of the 
Kaleidoscope depend, whilst he was engaged in ex- 
periments on the polarization of light by successive 
reflections between plates of glass. The reflectors 
were in some cases inclined to each other, and he 
remarked the circular arrangement of the images of a 
candle round a centre. In afterwards repeating the 
experiments of M. Biot on the action of fluids on 
light, he placed the fluids in a trough formed by two 
plates of glass cemented together at an angle. The 
eye being placed at one end, some of the cement 
which pressed, through between the plates appeared to 
be arranged in a circular figure. The symmetry of 



THE KALEIDOSCOPE. 93 

this figure being very remarkable. Sir David Brewster 
undertook to investigate the cause of the phenomenon, 
and the result of his investigations was the invention 
of the instrument to which he gave the name of 
Kaleidoscope, from the Greek words Ka\o<;, beautiful, 
€t8o9, a form, and aKoireco^ to see. ^ 

The Kaleidoscope in its simplest form consists of 
two equal strips of plate glass, about 8 inches long 
and 2 inches w4de, silvered on one side, to act as re- 
flectors. These glasses are placed one over the other 
exactly, and then the edges on one side being 
separated, whilst the two other edges are kept close 
tegether, they are fixed by means of separating pieces 
of wood and string at the angle required. The glasses 
are then fitted into a metal tube, which has an eye- 
hole at one end, and at the other end of the tube there 
is fixed a small cell of ground glass, to contain pieces 
of differently stained glass or other objects, that are 
to be multiplied by reflections into beautiful 
symmetrical figures. In the better kind of Kaleido- 
scopes, the cell containing the objects may be turned 
round, by which means the pieces of glass shift their 
positions, and the figures instantly change. The same 
effect is produced, though in a less agreeable manner, 
in the common kind of instruments, by turning the 
tube. 

To form by the combined reflections from the two 
glasses a perfectly symmetrical figure, the sector com- 
prised between the inclined sides of the glasses may 
consist of any even aliquot part of a circle. In 

* Brewster's Encyclopaedia, article " Kaleidoscope." 



94 



GREAT FACTS. 




the accompanying diagram, the ends of the flat 

silvered glasses a c^ 
1) G^ are inclined at an 
angle of 60 degrees ; 
therefore the circle 
is completed by the 
junction of six sec- 
tors. In such a Ka- 
leidoscope, the circu- 
lar figure will be 
formed by three re- 
flections from each 
glass 

To make the formation ot the circular figure 
by repeated reflections more intelligible, we will 
consider it as composed of the smallest possible 

number of equal di- 
^y^ "N. visions, as in the 

second diagram, in 
which the circle is 
divided into quad- 
rants. In such an 
arrangement of the 
reflectors, the figure 
seen on looking 
through the central 
aperture will consist 
of four parts. In the 
first place, the objects included in the space a h c^ 
between the inclined glasses, will be seen directly by 
rays of light from the objects themselves ; viz., the 
small cross d^ and the triangle e. The same field of 




THE KALEIDOSCOPE. 95 

view will be reflected from both mirrors, by which 
reflection the cross on one side will seem to be 
doubled, and the triangle on the other will have 
another similar one added to it, to make a complete 
rhomb. The cross will also be reflected by the mirror 
on the right side, and the triangle by the one on the 
left. The images of the objects contained within the 
space ah c^ being thus presented by reflection on both 
sides, they become the objects for further reflections 
from parts of the mirrors still nearer the spectator. 
Thus the images cV on both sides are reflected to form 
the single image d^^ and the images e^ are in the same 
manner reflected to form the second image 6^ 

When the angle formed by the inclination of the 
mirrors divides the circle into a greater number of 
sectors, the reflections of the images are repeated, 
from points nearer and nearer to the eye, and the 
circle is thus completed, however numerous the sec- 
tors may be ; but at each repetition of the reflection, 
the images will become more dim, since, owing to 
the imperfection of reflecting surfaces, a portion of 
the light is absorbed at each reflection. 

In the first instruments that were constructed, the 
objects were fixed in the field of view, therefore 
scarcely any change of pattern was obtainable. It 
was not until some time afterwards that the idea oc- 
curred to Sir David Brewster of producing endless 
changes of the figures, by making the objects mova- 
ble in a cell of glass at the end of the instrument. 
He afterwards introduced other improvements in the 
Kaleidoscope, for extending its range of objects, for 



96 GREAT FACTS. 

varying the angles of inclination, and for projecting 
the figures on a screen. In the instrument, as ordi- 
narily made, the objects to be seen properly must be 
placed close to the end of the reflectors ; but by the 
addition to the instrument of a tube containing a lens, 
the rays from distant objects are brought to a focus 
near the mirrors, and the image formed there is re- 
peated by the reflectors in the same manner as a solid 
object. 

The projection of the figures on a screen, by an 
apparatus similar to a magic lantern, gives great ad- 
ditional pleasure to the effects of the Kaleidoscope, as 
the figures are not only seen by several persons at the 
same time, but they are presented in a magnified 
form. The projection of the figures also increases the 
use of the instrument in designing patterns, for which 
purpose it has been employed with great advantage. 

A patent for the Kaleidoscope was taken out in 
1817, but the high prices charged by the opticians 
who were authorized by the inventor to sell the in- 
strument, and the facility with which it could be 
made, occasioned a general violation of the patent 
right, and it was not long before the claim of Sir 
David Brewster, as the original inventor, was disput- 
ed. In the indignant vindication of his claim, he 
observes : — " There never was a popular invention 
which the labours of envious individuals did not at- 
tempt to trace to some remote period ;" and the 
Kaleidoscope was not an exception. It was found 
that Kircher had described the effects of repeated 
reflections as far back as 1630 ; and that Mr. Bradley 



THE KALEDIOSCOPE. 97 

had, in 1717, made a philosophical toy, consisting of 
two small mirrors, that opened like a book, which, 
when partially opened, repeated the reflections of 
objects placed near it in the same manner as the 
Kaleidoscope. But this instrument was so different 
in its construction, and in the effects it produced, 
from the Kaleidoscope, that Sir David Brewster's 
claim to be the inventor may be freely admitted. 
The fact that it took the world by surprise, and crea- 
ted a sensation greater than any other invention had 
done before, is sufficient to establish its title as an 
original invention. 



THE MAGIC DISC. 

There are several ways of illustrating the reten- 
tion by the retina of the eye of the images of objects 
after they have been withdrawn from sight, but none 
is so curious as the philosophical toy called the Magic 
Disc, which, from the optical principles involved in 
its extraordinary effects, deserves to be noticed as one 
of the remarkable inventions of the present century. 

One of the most striking methods of exhibiting the 
retentive property of the retina, before the invention 
of the Magic Disc, was to paint different objects at the 
back and on the front of a card, and by then giving 
rapid rotation to the card, both objects were seen 
together. Thus, when the figure of a bird is painted 
on one side, and an empty cage on the other, by rap- 
idly turning the card, the bird appears to be in the 
cage. In the Magic Disc the objects are painted on 
the same side of a circular piece of card-board, and 
both are exposed to view during their rapid rotation. 

The disc is divided into eight or ten compartments, 
in each one of which the same figures are repeated, 
though the positions of one or more of them are 
changed. A favourite subject represented is a clown 



THE MAGIC DISC. 



99 



leaping over the back of a pantaloon, wliich affords 
a simple illustration of the apparent relative move- 
ments of two bodies, and will serve to explain how 
the effect is produced. 

The instrument consists of a disc of stiff card-board, 
about nine inches diameter, mounted on a horizontal 
pivot in the centre, on which it may be freely turned. 
Between each of the compartments of the disc there 




is an elongated aperture, about one inch long and a 
quarter of an inch wide, for the eye to look through. 
Suppose the disc to be divided into eight compart- 
ments, by radial lines. In the compartment No. 1, 
the pantaloon is represented in a stooping posture. 



100 GREAT FACTS. 

and the clown is on the ground ready to make a spring. 
In No. 2 the pantaloon is in the same attitude, but 
the clown has commenced his leap, and is raised a 
little way from the ground. In the third division he 
is shown still higher in the air ; and in the fourth he 
is mounted above the shoulders of pantaloon, who re- 
tains the same posture as at first. The fifth compart- 
ment represents the clown as having jumped over 
pantaloon's head, and coming down to the ground ; 
and in each succeeding division his farther descent is 
shown, till, in l^o. 8, he has reached the ground again, 
and is ready to recommence the leap. 

When the disc is turned rapidly round on its 
pivot, the figures painted upon it are mingled together, 
and present a confused medley of lines and colours, 
in which no object can be distinctly defined. This 
mingling of the objects is caused by the retention of 
the images by the retina, so that if the eye be directed 
to any point, the impression of the lines and colours 
that pass rapidly before it is not effaced before another 
and another appear to produce fresh impressions, and 
they mingle together in confusion. If, for instance, 
there were a circle formed of dots marked on the disc, 
the impression of each dot on the retina would be 
prolonged ; and as, by the rotation, other dots would 
come into the field of view before the impression of 
the first was removed, it would form an unbroken 
ring. But if the disc were screened from sight, at in- 
tervals of nearly equal duration to that of the con- 
tinuous impression, so as to efface the image of one 
dot before the rays of another were admitted to the 



THE MAGIC DISC. 101 

eye, then the ring would be seen to be composed of 
dots, as distinctly as when the disc was stationary. 

The effect of screening the objects from the eye at 
short intervals is produced by looking with one eye 
through the openings at the image of the disc, reflected 
from a mirror. The figures are then seen only when 
the apertures come opposite the eye ; but as the im- 
pression of one view remains till it is renewed by the 
light admitted through the next aperture, there is con- 
tinuous vision of the objects painted on the disc. 

It is thus that the figures of pantaloon and clown 
become visible, and their apparent relative movements 
are occasioned. For instance ; each time that the im- 
pression of the figure of the pantaloon is renewed, he 
is seen in the same place and in the same attitude ; 
therefore he appears to be stationary, though, the 
successive pictures that compose his figure to the eye 
are in rapid rotary motion. The figure of the clown, 
however, is seen in a different position each time 
that he comes into view, therefore he appears to be in 
motion relatively to pantaloon, though stationary as 
regards his absolute position on the disc. 

The same effect would be produced if the disc, 
during its rotation, were seen by successive electric 
sparks. The electric spark is so momentary in its 
duration, that the most rapidly moving objects appear 
stationary ; therefore each spark would show a seeming- 
ly stationary disc, on which the figi'ire of the clown 
would appear in different relative positions; and the 
illusion would be as perfect as when the rays of light 
are interrupted at intervals. 



102 GREAT FACTS. 

The electric spark is so instantaneous that a cannon 
ball might be seen in its rapid flight, if illuminated by 
a flash of lightning, and would seem to be stationary. 
Professor Faraday mentioned, in one of his lectures, 
the extraordinary appearance which a man, who was 
jumping over a stile, presented when seen by lightning 
on a dark night. The man seemed to be resting 
horizontally in the air, with one hand touching the 
stile. 

The duration of the impression of an object on the 
retina is capable of illustration by means of the Magic 
Disc in a great variety of designs, each one of which 
may represent many movements. The turning of the 
wheels of machinery, the tossing of balls, the dancing 
figures of men and women may thus be shown, the 
designs for which afford ample scope for exercising 
the pencil of an ingenious artist. 



THE DIOEAMA. 

Those who are old enough to remember the 
Regent's Park before there were any houses north- 
ward of the New Road, may recollect that among the 
first buildings erected, on what is now called Park 
Square, was a strange-looking, partly semi-circular 
erection, provided with ample lighting space, which 
attracted great attention during its progress, and was 
the cause of much speculation as to its probable pur- 
pose. That building was intended for the exhibition 
of the Diorama. 

M. Daguerre, the inventor of the Daguerreotype, 
had, in conjunction with M. Bouton, a short time pre- 
viously opened a similar exhibition in Paris, where 
the beauty of the paintings, aided by the extraordinary 
effects of newly contrived dispositions of the light, had 
excited a great sensation. The Diorama was opened 
in London on the 6th of October, 1823, and for a long 
time it was equally popular in this metropolis. 

The visitors, after passing through a gloomy ante- 
room, were ushered into a circular chamber, apparent- 
ly quite dark. One or two small shrouded lamps 



104 GREAT FACTS. . 

placed on the floor served dimly to light the way to a 
few descending steps, and the voice of an invisible 
guide gave directions to walk forward. The eye soon 
became siiflSciently accustomed to the darkness to 
distinguish the objects around, and to perceive that 
there were several persons seated on benches opposite 
an open space, resembling a large window. Through 
the window was seen the interior of a cathedral, 
undergoing partial repair, with the figures of two or 
three workmen resting from their labour. The pillars, 
the arches, the stone floor and steps, stained with 
damp, and the planks of wood strewn on the ground, 
all seemed to stand out in bold relief, so solidly as not 
to admit a doubt of their substantiality, whilst the floor 
extended to the distant pillars, temptingly inviting 
the tread of exploring footsteps. Few could be per- 
suaded that what they saw was a mere painting on 
a flat surface. This impression was strengthened 
by perceiving the light and shadows change, as if 
clouds were passing over the sun, the rays of which 
occasionally shone through the painted windows, 
casting coloured shadows on the floor. Then shortly 
the brightness would disappear, and the former gloom 
again obscure the objects that had been momentarily 
illuminated. The illusion was rendered more perfect 
by the excellence of the painting, and by the sensitive 
condition of the eye in the darkness of the surrounding 
chamber. Whilst gazing in wrapt admiration at the 
architectural beauties of the cathedral, the spectator's 
attention was disturbed by sounds underground. He 
became conscious that the scene before him was slowly 



THE DIORAMA. 105 

moving away, and he obtained a glimpse of another 
and very different prospect, which gradually advanced 
until it was completely developed, and the cathedral 
had disappeared. What he now saw was a valley, 
surrounded by high mountains capped w^ith snow. 
This mountain valley seemed scarcelj^ less real than 
the arched roof and columns of the cathedral, whilst 
a foaming cascade, dashing down the rocks, and the 
sound of rushing waters, added to the illusion. After 
looking for some time at this beautiful valley, the 
clouds were seen to gather on the mountain tops, and 
a storm impended. A gleam of sun-light, still resting 
on the edge of the clouds, exhibited a strange contrast 
between the silvery brightness and the dense black 
vapour that shrouded the hills, and could almost be 
felt. It was but a passing thunderstorm. Presently 
the dark clouds rose from the valley, and dispersed ; 
the sun again shone on cottage, vineyard, and moun- 
tain, charming the spectator as much by the beauty 
of the scene as he was astonished by the w^onderful 
change. 

Such was the Diorama as it was first exhibited in 
London to admiring crowds. In subsequent years 
greater changes were made in the variations of light 
and shade ; and by the introduction of mechanical 
contrivances, with more or less success, the magical 
effects were increased, without, however, adding to 
the apparent reality of the objects. A church or 
cathedral was always the subject of one view, and 
sometimes of both. The interior of an empty church 
would be showm by evening twilight. The shades of 



106 GREAT FACTS. 

evening gradually darkened into the obscurity of 
night, and then the glimmer of candles would be seen 
spreading more and more widely, until the church 
was lighted up, and it was occupied by a crowded 
congregation at midnight mass. Some views repre- 
sented the exterior of a ruin or of a cathedral after 
sunset, and as night advanced, the stars twinkled in 
the blue sky, and the moon rose and threw its silvery 
light on water, buildings, and clouds, contrasting in 
some cases with the red glare of lamps from the win- 
dows of houses and shops. The disc of the moon 
exactly resembled that of the real luminary, and all 
around being so dark, the rays from its surface cast 
shadows of intervening objects. In one picture a 
still more astonishing appearance was produced, by 
the change of the interior of a beautifully painted 
and decorated church into a mass of charred ruins. 

The means principally adopted for the production 
of these magical changes in a painting on a flat sur- 
face, and for giving such seeming reality to the ob- 
jects represented, were for some time kept secret ; 
nor do we think they are even yet much known. As 
in many other clever inventions, the eff*ects are pro- 
duced in a very simple manner. The picture is 
painted on both sides of a transparent screen, and the 
change of scene is occasioned almost entirely by 
exhibiting the picture at one time by reflected light, 
from the surface nearest the spectator, and afterwards 
by transmitted light, after excluding the light from 
the front. 

Let us take for illustration the interior of a church, 



THE DIORAMA. 107 

at first seen empty, and afterwards filled with people, 
and illuminated by candles. The empty church is 
painted on the front on fine canvas or silk, in trans- 
parent colours, and at the back are the figures and 
candles, and other objects intended to appear with 
them. The arrangements for illuminating the picture 
are so contrived, that the light may be thrown entire- 
ly on the front or on the back, or partly on both. 
When the light is on the front, the empty church 
only is visible. It is then gradually darkened, and 
the back of the picture is illuminated, by which means 
the figures and candles are seen ; and the form of the 
building being preserved, the same church, which 
was before empty, becomes occupied by a crowded 
congregation. 

It may be mentioned, as an illustration of the per- 
fect illusion of the Diorama, that a lady who on one 
occasion accompanied the author to the exhibition, 
was so fully convinced that the church represented 
was real, that she asked to be conducted down the 
steps to walk in the building. 

The effect of changing the direction of the light 
may be readily perceived by making a drawing on 
both sides of a sheet of paper, as shown in the annexed 
engraving. The side backing this page represents 
the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral when empty, 
and on the back several figures are drawn. Those 
figures are invisible until the leaf is held up against 
the light, and when the drawing is seen as a trans- 
parency, the objects on the back, as well as those in 
front, come into view, and the building appears to be 
occupied. 



108 



GREAT FACTS. 




THK DIORAMA. 



109 




110 



GREAT FACTS. 



Any one who has a taste for drawing, and a little 
ingenuity, may thus produce many pleasing and as- 
tonishing effects. It will be desirable to procure, in 




the first instance, a box, so contrived that it will hold 
the painting, and afford the means of throwing the 
light on the front or on the back at pleasure. The 
diagram shows the form of such a box. The letters 
a, Z>, ^, d mark the outside ; the aperture, at c d^ being 
enlarged to permit several persons to look into it at 
the same time. The box may be of any required 
dimensions, to suit the size of the drawing, which is 
to be fitted into a groove at a i, and the interior must 
be blackened. The lid, e^ when open, as in the dia- 
gram, admits the light to the front of the picture, the 
back being covered with an opaque screen. As the 
lid is closed, the picture becomes darkened, and by 
the gradual removal of the screen at the same time, 
it is changed into a transparency. This portable 
Diorama can be most conveniently shown by lamp- 
light, the flame of an argand lamp, the wick of which 



THE DIORAMA. Ill 

can be heightened and lowered, being best adapted 
for the purpose. The effect by daylight is. however, 
superior, but the room must then be darkened, and 
the admission of light confined to the picture. 

The moving water, and the motion of smoke and 
clouds, which were frequently introduced in the Dio- 
rama, were mechanical additions, the effects being 
produced by giving motion to bodies behind, the 
forms of which were seen by transmitted light. The 
introduction of such mechanical aids, however, de- 
tract from the artistic character of the Diorama, the 
principal merit of which consists in exhibitiug the 
changes occasioned by variations in the mode of throw- 
ing the light on the two-faced picture. 

It is to be regretted that exhibitions of a larger 
and more showy kind should have superseded the 
Diorama in public estimation ; and that, from the 
want of support, their charming and marvellous picto- 
rial representations, which formed, in days gone by, 
one of the principal " sights " of London, should be 
now closed. 



THE STEEEOSCOPE. 

One of the most beautiful as well as the most 
remarkable pictorial illusions is produced by the com- 
bination of two views into one by the recently invent- 
ed instrument called the Stereoscope. In the Diorama, 
in the Magic Disc, and in the Dissolving Yiews, sep- 
arate paintings combine to produce different effects ; 
but in the Stereoscope the two pictures unite into one 
to give additional effect to the same view, and to make 
that which is a flat surface, when seen singly, appear 
to project like a solid body. 

The principle of the Stereoscope depends on the 
different appearance which near objects present when 
seen by the right or by the left eye. For instance, 
on looking at a book placed edgewise, with the right 
eye, the back and one side of the book will be per- 
ceived ; and on closing the right eye and opening the 
left, the back and the other side of the book will be 
seen, and the right-hand side will be invisible. It is 
the combination of both these views by vision with 
two eyes that produces the impression of solidity of 
objects on the mind ; and if the different appearances 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 



113 



which the book presents to each eye be copied in 
separate drawings, and they can afterwards be placed 
in such a position as to form a united image on the 
retinae of the eyes, the same effect is produced as if 
the book itself were looked upon. 

This diagram represents the outlines of a near ob- 




ject, as seen by each eye separately. The one on the 
right hand shows it as seen with the right eye, and 
the other as it looks with the left eye ; and if both 
drawino;:s be combined into one image, it stands out in 
bold relief. This may be done without any instrument, 
by squinting at them ; but the effect is more readily 
and far more agreeably produced by the Stereoscope, 
so named from the Greek words crTepo<;, solid, and 
(TKOTrecOj to see. 

Professor "Wheatstone claims to be the first who 
contrived an instrument to illustrate this effect of 
binocular vision, and he also claims to be the first 
who brought to notice the different appearances of 
objects seen with each eye separately. Sir David 
Brewster, however, disputes, on behalf of Mr. Elliot, 
of Edinburgh, Professor "Wheatstone's claim to the in- 



114 GREAT FACTS. 

vention of the first stereoscopic instrument ; and lie 
lias shown that the difference of vision with each eye 
was remarked by Galen, 1,700 years ago ; that it was 
noticed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1500, and formed 
the subject of a treatise by a Jesuit, named Francis 
Aquilonius, in 1613 ; and that it was a well-known phe- 
nomenon of vision long before it was mentioned by 
Professor Wheatstone.^ Mr. Elliot, though he con- 
ceived the idea, in 1834, of constructing an instrument 
for uniting two dissimilar pictures, did not carry it 
into effect until 1839, the year after Mr. Wheat- 
stone had exhibited his reflecting Stereoscope to the 
Royal Society, and at the meeting of the British As- 
sociation. 

Mr. Elliot's contrivance, to which Sir David Brews- 
ter is inclined to give precedence in point of date, 
was very inferior in its effects to the reflecting Stereo- 
scope. It was without lenses or mirrors, and consisted 
of a wooden box 18 inches long, 7 inches broad, and 
4|- deep, and at the end of it was placed the dissimilar 
pictures, as seen by each eye, that were to be united 
into one. The view he drew for the purpose com- 
prised the moon, a cross, and the stump of a tree, at 
different distances ; and when looked at in the box, 
the cross and the stump of the tree appeared to stand 
out in relief. 

The accompanying woodcut represents the original 
stereoscopic pictures, copied from Sir David Brewster's 
book ; and by looking towards the picture on the left 

* '* The Stereoscope : its History, Theory, and Construction," by 
Sir David Brewster. 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 



115 



with the right eye, and on the right-hand picture with 
the left eye, the two will be seen united, and the 
cross and the stump of the tree will appear to stand 
out solidly. 




The arrangement of the apparatus, as described 
by Professor Wheatstone, in his paper read before the 
Eoyal Society, consists of two plane mirrors, about 
4 inches square, placed at right angles ; and the draw- 
ings, made on separate pieces of paper, were reflected 
to the eyes looking into the mirrors at their junction. 
The diagram is a sketch of this arrangement. In the 



a 





d 

middle of a narrow slip of wood, d e^ about 12 inches 
long, the two mirrors, a J, are fixed, inclined at the 



116 GREAT FACTS. 

required angle from their line of junction at c. Up- 
right pieces of wood, d h^ ef^ at each end, are fur- 
nished with slides or clips to hold the drawings, which 
are reflected from the inclined mirrors, and seen in 
tliem bv each eye separately. Thus, the left eye sees 
onl}^ the picture fixed on d A, and the right e3^e sees 
the one placed at ef; and the two images, being com- 
bined at the seat of vision, produce the same impres- 
sion as a solid body. 

It is almost unnecessary to describe the external 
appearance of the lenticular instrument invented by 
Sir David Brewster, and explained by him at the 
meeting of the British Association in 1849. In the 
best kind of instruments the glasses, through which 
the pictures are seen, are composed of a single large 
double-convex lens, divided in the middle, the thin 
edges being set towards each other, about 2-J inches 
apart. The more improved instruments, indeed, are 
made from lenses upwards of 3 inches in diameter, 
which, being cut into two, and the thin parts being 
ground flat, are set edge to edge, and from an aper- 
ture sufllciently large for both eyes to look through. 
By this means the instrument suits all eyes, without 
requiring adjustment, and the field of view is in- 
creased. A diaphragm, or partition, placed at the 
junction of the two lenses, confines the vision of each 
eye to its appropriated picture, and thus tends to 
prevent the confusion of images that might otherwise 
arise. 

The object of using semi-lenses is to facilitate the 
union of the two pictures into one, by looking through 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 117 

the lens towards its edge, instead of throngh the 
centre, the image being thus refracted to a different 
position. This may be easily exemplified by looking 
at an object steadily through different parts of the 
same lens. After looking at it with the right eye 
through the centre, and whilst keeping the axis of the 
eye in the same direction, move the lens slowly to- 
wards the right, so as to bring the edge of the lens 
opposite the pupil. This movement of the lens to- 
wards the right hand will be accompanied by an ap- 
parent movement of the image towards the left, so as 
to bring it to a point between the two eyes. If the 
experiment be repeated with the left eye, the image 
will be removed towards the right hand ; and thus, 
by looking at the two stereoscopic pictures through 
the thin parts of two lenses, the images are superposed 
and form a single one. 

Sir David Brewster attached much importance to 
the semi-lenses, which have the effect of prisms in 
refracting the rays of light ; but that form of lens is 
not essential to give apparent solidity to the images ; 
and many of the commoner kind of instruments are 
now made with ordinary double- convex lenses, and 
without any partition. "With the semi-lens, however, 
there is less difficulty in uniting the two pictures into 
one than when an ordinary lens is employed. 

In taking photographic pictures for the Stereoscope 
with a single camera, it is necessary to alter the angle 
of the instrument after having taken one picture, to 
direct it to the same object in the angle of vision as 
seen by the other eye. This method of producing 



118 GREAT FACTS. 

stereoscopic pictures with the same camera is very 
objectionable when any moving objects are in the 
field ; for they will be in a difi'erent position in each, 
and sometimes disappear altogether from the second 
picture. The plan adopted by the best photographers 
is to have two cameras set at the requisite angle to 
each other, so that both pictures or portraits may be 
taken at the same time. 

At the meeting of the British Association in 1853, 
M. Claudet endeavoured to establish some rules for the 
angle at which photographic pictures must be taken, 
in order to produce the best effect of relief and dis- 
tance without exaggeration. He observed, that in 
looking at a single picture with two eyes, there is 
less relief and less distance than when looking at it 
with one eye, because in the latter case we have the 
same effect we are accustomed to feel when we look 
at the natural objects with one eye ; while, if we look 
at the single picture with two eyes, we have on the 
two retinae the same image with the same perspective, 
which is not natural, and the eyes have not to make 
the usual effort for altering their convergence accord- 
ing to the plane on which the object observed is 
situated. This inaction of the convergence of the eyes 
diminishes the illusion of the picture, because the 
same convergence for all the objects represented gives 
an idea that they are all placed on the same plane. 
The photographic image being the representation of 
two different perspectives, we must, when we look at 
them in the Stereoscope, as when looking at the nat- 
ural objects themselves, converge, more or less, the 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 119 

axes of the eyes. Therefore we make the same effort, 
and have the same sensation in regarding the com- 
bined photographic pictures, as when we look at the 
objects represented. 

Sir David Brewster has suggested various appli- 
cations of the Stereoscope ; viz., to painting, to sculp- 
ture and engineering, to natural history, to education, 
and to purposes of amusement. The latter is the prin- 
cipal purpose to which the instrument is at present 
applied ; and some of the many ways in which it may 
contribute to delight the spectator are pointed out in 
Sir David Brewster's book. 

"For the purpose of amusement," he observes, 
" the photographer might carry us even into the re- 
gions of the supernatural. His art enables him to 
give a spiritual appearance to one or more of his 
figures, and to exhibit them as ' thin air,' amid the 
solid realities of the stereoscopic picture. While a 
party are engaged with their whist or their gossip, a 
female figure appears in the midst of them with all 
the attributes of the supernatural. Her form is 
transparent ; every object or person beyond her being 
seen in shadowy but distinct outline. She may 
occupy more than one place in the scene, and different 
portions of the group might be made to gaze upon 
one or other of the visions before them. In order to 
produce such a scene, the parties which are to com- 
pose the group must have their portraits nearly fin- 
ished in the binocular camera, in the attitude which 
they may be supposed to assume if the vision were 
real. When the party have nearly sat the proper 



120 GREAT FACTS. 

length of time, the female figure, suitably attired, 
walks quickly to the place assigned to her, and after 
standing a few seconds in the proper attitude, retires 
quickly, or takes as quickly a second, or even a third, 
place in the picture, if it is required, in each of which 
she remains a few seconds, so that her picture in these 
different positions may be taken with suflficient dis- 
tinctness in the negative photograph. If these ope 
rations have been well performed, all the objects im- 
mediately behind the female figure, having been 
previous to her introduction impressed upon the nega- 
tive surface, will be seen through her, and she will 
have the appearance of an aerial personage, unlike the 
other figures in the picture." 

It is in the foregoing manner that the remarkable 
stereoscopic effect of " Sir David Brewster's ghost " 
is produced, a representation of which is given in the 
next page. 

Sir David Brewster mentions many other curious 
applications of the Stereoscope, among which are the 
dioramic effects of pictures seen alternately by re- 
flected and by transmitted light ; a daylight view 
being apparently lighted up artificially in the night, 
by seeing it at one time with the light reflected from 
the surface, and then excluding the light from the 
front, and viewing it as a transparency. 

One of the most interesting effects of the Stereo- 
scope has been recently produced by Mr. De la Eue, 
who has contrived the means of giving apparent 
rotundity to the surface of the moon, as viewed 
through a powerful telescope. The disc of the full 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 121 

moon, however highly magnified, presents, as is well 
known, the appearance of a flat surface, with the 
lights and shadows marked seemingly on a plane. 
Owing to the great distance of that luminary, there 
is no variation in its appearance, whether it be looked 
at with one eye or with the other, therefore it seems 
removed beyond the operation of the ordinary cause 




of stereoscopic eficcts. JSTevertheless, Mr. De la Rue 
has taken photographs of the moon which, when 
placed in the Stereoscope, combine to form a solid- 
looking globe, on which all the lights and shadows 
6 



122 GREAT FACTS. 

are distinctly and beautifully delineated. He has 
produced this effect by taking his photographs at 
different periods of the year, when there is a slight 
variation in the direction of the moon's face to the 
earth ; and by combining these separate photographs 
into one image in the Stereoscope, the form of the 
moon appears as convex as the surface of an artificial 
globe. 

M. Claudet, who is one of the most successful 
photographers in the metropolis, has contrived an ar- 
rangement which he calls a " Stereomonoscope," by 
which the appearance of solidity is communicated to 
a single image formed on a screen of ground glass. 
The screen of ground glass has a black back, and is 
placed in the focus of a lens in an ordinary camera 
obscura, wherein the image may be seen by looking 
down upon it. The particles of the roughened glass 
reflect to each eye different parts of the image focused 
on the screen, and by this means a similar effect is 
produced as when two dissimilar pictures are looked 
at through a stereoscope instrument. One great ad 
vantage of this arrangement is that several persons 
may look at the image at the same time. 

Mr. John Sang, of Kirkaldy, has very recently 
imparted stereoscopic effect to copies of paintings and 
engravings, the flat surfaces of which were previously 
thought to defy any such application of the Stereo 
scope. The means he employs of doing so are at 
present kept secret, but he has shown its practicability 
by copying, on wood engravings, Mr. George Cruik. 



THE STEREOSCOPE. 123 

shank's series of " The Bottle." In some respects this 
process seems ahnost more wonderful than the origi- 
nal Stereoscope, for it gives solid form and apparent 
substantiality to the mere creations of the artist's 
pencil. 



Pa^^y ^. /.? ^^ ^ THE ELEOTKIC TELEGEAPH. 

No application of science has so completely realiz- 
ed the visions of fancy as the Electric Telegraph. 
So closely, indeed, does the real of the present day 
approach to the ideal of ages past, that it might be 
supposed the narratives in the tales of faery land 
were true records of the inventions of former times, 
and that the combined efforts of inventive genius 
during the last half century were but imitations and 
reproductions of what had been successfully accom- 
plished " once upon a time." There is also an inter- 
mediate period — between the indefinite of faery tales 
and the positive of scientific history — in which sym- 
pathetic tablets and magical loadstones, scarcely less 
mythical, are stated to have been invented ; and the 
individuals are named who thus paved the way for 
instantaneous communication between all parts of the 
world. 

The Jesuits of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
turies took the place of the magicians of the Middle 
Ages. In the seclusion of their monasteries, they 
speculated on the mysterious powers of Nature, then 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 125 

partially revealed to them, and shadowed forth 
images of their possible applications. It is to a 
vague speculation of this kind that we may attribute 
the notice given by Strada, in his " Prolusiones Aca- 
demicse," of the sympathetic magnetic needles, by 
which two friends at a distance were able to com- 
municate ; though the then fanciful idea has been 
literally realized. A still more extraordinary fore- 
shadowing of one of the most recent improvements 
of the Electric Telegraph was the transference of writ- 
ten letters from one place to another by electric 
agency. This is said to have been accomplished by 
Kircher, who, in his " Prolusiones Magneticse," de- 
scribes, though very vaguely, the mode of operation. 
But even admitting that there were substantial foun- 
dations for these imaginary phantasms, that would not 
in the least detract from the merit of those who, fol- 
lowing closely the footsteps of scientific discovery, 
have successfully applied the principles unfolded 
hj the investigations of others, and by their own as- 
siduous researches. Thus, whilst steam navigation 
was facilitating the means of intercourse over rivers 
and seas, and whilst railways and locomotive engines 
served to bring distant cities within a few hours' 
journey of each other, another source of power, in- 
finitely more rapid in its action than steam, has been 
made to transmit intelligence from place to place, and 
from one country to another, with the speed ot 
lightning. 

The plan of making communications by signals 
has been in operation from, time immemorial ; the 



126 GKEAT FACTS. 

beacon lights on hills having served in ancient as 
well as in modern times to give warning of danger, or 
to announce tidings of joy. Such simple signals were 
not capable of much variety of expression ; but even 
beacon lights might be made to indicate different 
kinds of intelligence, by multiplying the number of 
the fires, and by altering their relative positions. It 
was not, however, till the invention of telegraphs that 
anything approaching to the means of holding regular 
communication by signals was attained. The sema- 
phore of the brothers Chappe, of France, invented by 
them in 1794, was the most perfect instrument of the 
kind, and was generally employed for telegraphic 
purposes, until it was supplanted by the Electric 
Telegraph. 

The semaphore consisted of an upright post, hav- 
ing arms on each side, that could be readily extended, 
at any given angle. The extension of these arms on 
one side or the other, either separately or together, 
and at different angles, constituted a variety of signals 
sufficient for the purposes of communication. The 
semaphores, erected on elevated points, so as to be 
visible through telescopes, signalled intelligence 
slowly from one station to another, till it reached its 
ultimate destination; and thus — daylight and clear 
weather permitting — brief orders could be sent from 
the Admiralty to Portsmouth in the course of a few 
minutes. But the communication was liable to be 
interrupted by fogs, as well as by nightfall. 

A remarkable instance of the imperfection of sight 
telegraphs occurred during the Peninsular "War. A 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 127 

telegraphic despatch, received at the Admiralty from 
Portsmouth, announced — " Lord Wellington defeat- 
ed ; " — and then the communication was interrupted 
by a fog. This telegraphic message caused great con- 
sternation, and the utmost anxiety was experienced to 
learn the extent of the supposed disaster. When, 
however, the fog dispersed, the remainder of the mes- 
sage gave a completely opposite character to the 
news, which in its completed form ran thus : " Lord 
Wellington defeated the French," &c. 

Some better means of transmitting important in- 
telligence was evidently wanted ; for not only was 
the semaphore liable to frequent interruptions by the 
weather, but its action was very slow, and the fre- 
quent repetitions from station to station increased the 
risk of blunders. 

The instantaneous transmission of an electric shock 
suggested the means of communicating with greatly 
increased rapidity ; and when it was ascertained, by 
experiments made by Dr. Watson at Shooter's Hill, in 
1747, that the charge of a Leyden jar could be sent 
through a circuit of four miles, with velocity too 
great to be appreciable, the practicability of applying 
electricity for conveying intelligence became at once 
apparent. 

Of the many means by which this object was 
attempted to be accomplished, it will be only pos- 
sible, in this general survey, to notice those that mark 
the first steps of the invention, and the most important 
of those that have accompanied its progress to the 
present time. 



128 GREAT FACTS. 

The first method that suggested itself was to trans- 
mit signals by means of pith-ball electrometers. 
When, for instance, two pith-balls are suspended from 
a ware that is made to form part of an electric circm't, 
the electricity communicated to the balls causes tliem 
to diverge, and when the electricity in the wire is 
discharged, they immediately collapse. This action 
of pith-balls, when electrified, was the simplest mode 
known of making telegraphic signals, and it was ac- 
cordingly adopted by several of the early inventors of 
Electric Telegraphs. The first person who proposed 
to apply it for that purpose was M. Lesage, of Gene- 
va, in 1774. His plan was to form 24 electric cir- 
cuits by as many separate wires, insulated from each 
other in glass tubes ; and to place in the circuit, at 
each communicating station, an equal number of pith- 
ball electrometers. Each electrometer was to repre- 
sent a letter of the alphabet, and they were to be 
brought into action by an excited glass rod. "When a 
communication was to be made, the wires connected 
with the separate galvanometers were to be charged 
alternately with electricity by the excited rod of 
glass; and the person at the receiving station, by 
noticing which of the electrometers were successively 
put into action, could s]3ell the words intended to be 
communicated. 

By the means thus proposed, correspondence could 
have taken place at only short distances, for the 
charge of an excited glass rod would have been too 
feeble to produce any sensible eff*ect on the elec- 
trometers had the length of the circuit been considera- 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 129 

ble. This difficulty might have been overcome by 
substituting the charge of a Ley den jar for the excit- 
ed glass ; but the more serious obstacle to the use of 
such a telegraph would have been the cost, and the 
difficulty of insulating the 24: wires required to work 
it. 

Most of the early telegraphic inventors encumber- 
ed their inventions with the same obstacle, as they 
seemed to consider it necessary to have a separate 
circuit for each letter of the alphabet. It was not so 
however, with all; for M. Lomond, a Frenchman, who 
ranks second in the list of telegraphic inventors, 
modified the principle of M. Lesage, so as to enable 
him to work with only two wires and one electrometer 
at each station. With the experience since gained in 
the application of the needle telegraph, such an 
arrangement seems very simple, and we are inclined 
to wonder that it was not generally adopted, especially 
after M. Lomond had shown the way. 

To produce all the requisite signals with a single 
pith-ball electrometer, it was necessary to vary the 
durations of each divergence, and to combine several 
to form a single symbol. Thus, suppose t-hat a single 
divergence of the pith-balls for a second was under- 
stood to signify the letter A / one divergence, followed 
by an immediate collapse, by discharging the electri- 
city, might signify 5/ two prolonged divergences 
might signify (7, and two short ones D / and by thus 
increasing the number and varying the divergences 
of the two pith-balls, all the letters of the alphabet 
might be indicated. 
6* 



130 GREAT FACTS. 

A still more direct metliod of representing the 
letters of the alphabet was proposed by M. Reizen in 
1794, by the application of the means frequently 
adopted for exhibiting the light of the electric spark. 
The charge of a Ley den jar was sent through strips of 
tin foil, pasted on to a flat piece of glass, so as to form 
several lines, joined at the ends alternately into a con- 
tinuous circuit. Interruptions were made in the foil 
by cutting small portions away, at which points 
brilliant sparks appeared when the jar was discharged. 
As the interruptions were so contrived as to form 
letters, and the strips of tin foil were all arranged 
separately on a long pane of glass, any letter required 
could be distinctly made visible by discharging the 
jar through that particular circuit. To produce all 
the letters of the alphabet in this manner, a separate 
circuit was required for each. 

Another plan, far less feasible, and scarcely de- 
serving of notice, excepting for its peculiarity, was 
proposed in the following year by M. Oavallo, who 
suggested the setting fire to combustibles, or the ex- 
plosion of detonating substances, as the means of 
signalling intelligence. About the same time several 
attempts were made by electricians in Spain to trans- 
mit signals by electricity, but their plans were not 
more practicable than those already mentioned, and 
depended for their effects on the discharge of Leyden 
jars. 

The discovery of voltaic electricity at the beginning 
of the present century was an important step in the 
progress of the Electric Telegraph, though several 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 131 

years elapsed before the applicability of the discovery 
for that purpose became known ; and it was not fully 
appreciated till within the last twenty years. 

The electricity generated by the voltaic battery is 
far greater in quantity than the most powerful electri- 
cal machine can excite, whilst its intensity is so feeble 
that it cannot pass in a spark through the smallest 
interval of air. It presents, therefore, much less 
difficulty in the insulation of the wires than frictional 
electricity, whilst the rapidity of its transmission is for 
practical purposes equally efficient. The electricity 
generated by the ^'oltaic battery being great in quan- 
tity and feeble in intensity, it is capable also of 
effecting chemical decomposition and of imparting 
magnetism, both of which properties have proved 
eminently useful in perfecting the Electric Telegraph. 

The first application of voltaic electricity to tele- 
graphic purposes was made by Mr. Soemmering in 
1809. The signals of his telegraph consisted of the 
bubbles of gas arising from the decomposition of water, 
during the action of the electric current. His appa- 
ratus consisted of a small glass trough, filled with 
acidulated water, through the bottom part of which 
were introduced several gold wires corresponding to 
the letters of the alphabet. The instant that an elec- 
tric current was sent through any two of the wires, by 
making connection with a voltaic battery at the trans- 
mitting instrument, bubbles of hydrogen gas rose 
from one of the gold wires, and bubbles of oxygen gas 
from another ; and as the volume of hydrogen gas, 
liberated during the decomposition of water, exceeds 



132 GREAT FACTS. 

by sixteen times that of the oxygen, it was easy to 
distinguish them. In this maimer all the letters of the 
alphabet could be indicated by nsing 24 wires. The 
object of having gold wires in the decomposing trough 
was to prevent the oxidation of the metal ; for had 
copper, or any other metal that combines with oxygen, 
been employed, the points of the wires w^ould soon 
have become corroded. 

This telegraph of Soemmering's, thongh not adapt- 
ed for practical application in the form he presented 
it, on account of the number of wires required for the 
purpose, was nevertheless superior to any that had 
previously been invented ; and by a little modification 
it might have been made a perfect instrument, capa- 
ble of transmitting messages by means of only two 
wires. Such a modification of the instrument was 
proposed by M. Schweigger, twenty years afterwards ; 
the only thing required beiug the adoption of a code 
of symbols, by means of which all the letters might 
be indicated by combinations of the four primary sig- 
nals that are obtainable by two wires, as is at present 
done by the needle telegraph in common use. At 
that time, however, the discovery of the magnetic 
properties of the electric current, and other improve- 
ments in the means of communicating, superseded for 
some years the use of signals made by electro-chemical 
decomposition. 

The next important step in the progress of tele- 
graphic invention, after that of Mr. Soemmering, was 
made by Mr. Ronalds, who in 1816 succeeded in 
making a perfect apparatus, that transmitted every 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 133 

requisite signal with the use of only a single circuit. 
In the agent employed, however, there was a retro- 
gression to frictional electricity and the pitch-ball 
electrometer, for at that time the property which a 
voltaic current possesses of deflecting a magnetic 
needle had not been discovered. 

Mr. Konalds's plan was to have, at each communi- 
cating station, a good clock with a light paper disc 
fixed on to the seconds wheel, on which were marked 
all the letters of the alphabet, and the ten numerals. 
Only so much of this disc was exposed to view as to 
show a single letter at a time, through a small aper- 
ture, as the seconds wheel revolved. The clocks at 
the corresponding stations were set exactly together, 
so that the same letter was exposed to view at each 
instrument at the same instant. A pith-ball electro- 
meter, connected in a single circuit with the transmit- 
ting station, was kept distended during the transmission 
of a message by charging the wire from an electrical 
machine ; and when the letter required to be indi- 
cated appeared at the aperture of both instruments, 
the operator at the transmitting instrument instantly 
discharged the electricity of the wire by touching it, 
and thus caused the pith-balls to collapse. In this 
manner the person at the receiving station, by atten- 
tively watching the pith-balls, and noticing the letter 
that appeared at the instant of collapse, could read 
the messages signalled. 

Mr. Eonalds so far perfected his invention, that it 
worked accurately, though slowly, through eight miles 
of wire insulated in glass tubes. Having thus succeed- 



134 GREAT FACTS. 

ed in putting into action his single wire telegraph, 
Mr. Ronalds sought the patronage of Government for 
its practical adoption, such a notion as that of estab- 
lishing a telegraph for commercial purposes not being 
at that time entertained. For a length of time his 
application received no attention, and when at length 
the Lords of the Admiralty condescended to answer, 
they sent Mr. Ronalds, as the reward for his ingenuity, 
and as compensation for the time and money bestowed 
in perfecting the invention, the expression of their 
opinion — that " telegraphs are of no use in time of 
peace, and that during war the semaphore answered 
all required purposes " ! This reply, so characteristic 
of the manner in which Government einjployes generally 
regard anything new to which their attention is so- 
licited, completely disheartened Mr. Ronalds. He 
abandoned the Electric Telegraph to its fate ; and 
having gone abroad, he returned some years later to 
find that, notwithstanding the dictitm of the Lords of 
the Admiralty, telegraphs are of great use in time of 
peace as w^ell as of war, and that the old semaphore 
had been entirely superseded by the means of trans- 
mission he had indicated twenty years before. Mr. 
Ronalds has since received a small pension, not how- 
ever as a reward for his ingenious telegraph invention, 
but for his services in other departments of science. 

The discover}^ of the magnetic property of an 
electric current by Professor CErsted, in 1818, was 
most important in the subsequent progress of telegraph- 
ic invention, though it was not applied in a practical 
manner till nearly twenty years afterwards. In 1820, 



THE ELECTEIC TELEGRAPH. 135 

indeed, M. Ampere submitted to the Academy of 
Sciences at Paris a telegraphic instrument for the 
transmission of signals by the deflection of needles, 
but he adopted the impracticable plan of the earliest 
inventors, of having a separate wire for each letter oi 
the alphabet. A much more important contribution 
to telegraphic invention by M. Ampere was the dis- 
covery of electro-magnets, which act an important 
part in many recent electric telegraphs. 

As the magnetic properties of a voltaic current 
are extensively applied in electric telegraphs, it is de- 
sirable briefly to explain the nature of the action of 
voltaic batteries before proceeding farther with the 
history of the invention. 

To excite a current of voltaic electricity, it is usual 
to employ a series of zinc and copper plates, arranged 
alternately in separate jars; or, what is now most 
common, in cells of gutta percha, separated from each 
other in a gutta percha trough. The cells are nearly 
filled with diluted sulphuric acid, and a wire is attach- 
ed to each end of the trough ; one being connected 
with the last zinc plate, and the other with the last 
copper plate of the opposite ends of the trough. 
When these wires are brought into contact, electricity 
is instantly generated by the action of the acid on the 
zinc plates. The electricity excited by the action on 
the zinc in one cell is candied on to the next, and that 
again excites and transfers an additional quantity to 
the third cell, thus increasing in intensity to the last 
pair of plates in the series. The electric current^ as it 
is called, passes along the wire, and whether the wire 



136 GREAT FACTS. 

be one yard, or whether it be a hundred miles long, 
the generation of electricity takes place the instant 
that the circuit is completed, and ends the instant that 
the circuit is broken. There is this difference, how- 
ev^er, in the transmission of electricity through a long 
and through a short circuit, that in the former case the 
increased resistance offered by the length of the wire 
greatly diminishes the quantity of electricity trans- 
mitted though it does not perceptibly retard the 
velocity. 

When a balanced magnetic needle is held above a 
short thick copper wire whilst it is transmitting an 
electric current, the needle is deflected from its natural 
position, and inclines either to the right or to the left, 
according to the direction in which the current passes. 
If, for instance, the north pole of the needle be pointed 
towards the copper pole of the battery, it will be de- 
flected towards the east, but if the direction of the 
battery current be reversed, the deflection will be 
towards the west. The effect instantly ceases wlien 
the current is interrupted by breaking connection 
with either pole of the battery. The copper wire, 
though under ordinary circumstances incapable of 
being rendered magnetic, thus becomes endowed with 
strong magnetic properties when it is transmitting an 
electric current, and acts on the magnetic needle in 
the same manner as if there were an immense number 
of small magnets placed along the wire across its 
diameter. 

The magnetic property of an electric current, first 
discovered by OErsted, was applied by M. Ampere 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 137 

to impart magnetism to iron, by coiling a length of 
copper wire round a bar of iron, taking care to cover 
the wire with an insulating substance, so that when an 
electric current w^as transmitted the electricity might 
not pass through the iron. Coils of copper wire, 
covered with cotton or silk, can thus impart most 
powerful magnetism to a piece of soft iron ; but it 
loses its magnetic power the instant that the electric 
current is interrupted. 

The effect of a coil of insulated wire in increasing 
the magnetic power of an electric current, was applied 
by M. Schweigger in 1832 to increase the sensitive- 
ness of a suspended magnetic needle. By surround- 
ing a compass needle with several convolutions of 
covered wire, it was found that the deflections of the 
needle were much greater and more active ; and he 
thus showed the way to the construction of those deli- 
cate galvanometers, which indicate by their deflec- 
tions the slightest disturbance of electrical equilib- 
rium. Schweigger may, therefore, be considered the 
original inventor of the Needle Telegraph ; and as he 
pointed out a method of impressing symbols on paper 
mechanically, by means of electro-magnets, he may 
be considered also as the original inventor of Record- 
ing Electric Telegraphs. 

The first near approach to the needle telegraph, 
now used in this country, was made by Baron de 
Schilling, who, in 1832, constructed at St. Petersburg 
an electric telegraph consisting of five magnetic 
needles. This may be considered as the precursor of 
the five-needle telegraph, first patented by Professor 



138 GREAT FACTS. 

Wheatstone in 1837. By the separate deflection of 
those needles to the right hand or to the left, by re- 
versing the connections with the poles of the bat- 
teries, ten primary signals could be obtained ; and by 
bringing two into action at the same time, many 
more signals might be made than were required for 
indicating the letters of the alphabet, and they could 
be appropriated to express several words. For the 
action of this very efficient telegraph only five wires 
were required, and the signals being all primary ones, 
the messages might have been transmitted very 
quickly.^ In a subsequent modification of the tele- 
graph, he contrived to make all the signals with one 
magnetic needle alone, by repeating the deflections 
to the right and to the left, as done in the needle tele- 
graph now generally used in England. 

Another step made by Baron de Schilling was the 
invention of an alarum to call, attention when a mes- 
sage was about to be sent. Some contrivance of this 
kind was considered essential in the early days of the 
practical application of the Electric Telegraph, as no 
one then contemplated that telegraphic communica- 
tions would be so frequent as to require a person to 
be always near the instrument, waiting for the re- 
ceipt of messages. 

* Primary signals are those in which the letter indicated is repre- 
sented by a single deflection of the needles in either direction. A 
single needle telegraph can have only two primary signals, one to the 
right and one to the left ; all the other letters being indicated by re- 
peated deflections. In several instances four deflections are required 
to signal a single letter. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 139 

Baron de Schilling's alarum was very simple. 
One of the magnetic needles acted as a detent which 
held a weight suspended, and when the needle was 
deflected, the weight fell upon a bell. The alarums 
subsequently invented were constructed on the same 
principle, but instead of employing one of the mag- 
netic needles as a detent, an electro-magnet was used 
for the purpose, and clock mechanism was introduced 
to sound a bell continuously, as soon as it was set in 
action by the withdrawal of the detent. At the 
present time alarums are not used in the regular sta- 
tions of the electric telegraph companies ; the sound 
of the needles, as they strike against the ivory rests 
on each side, being sufficient to call the attention of 
the clerks, who are in constant attendance. 

We have hitherto been enabled to trace, step by 
step, the advances made at intervals — years asunder 
— in bringing the Electric Telegraph into practical 
use ; but we are now approaching a time when it be- 
comes difficult to enumerate, and impossible to de- 
scribe within reasonable compass, the numerous in- 
ventions that were patented and otherwise made 
known for giving greater efficiency to that means of 
communication. 

In the early part of the year 1837, the electric 
telegraphs of Mr. Alexander, of Edinburgh, and of 
Mr. Davy, were publicly exhibited in London, and 
excited much attention ; though, at that time it was 
not supposed that it would be 'possible to make use of 
that means of communication for general purposes. 
Mr. Alexander's telegraph was the same in principle 



140 GREAT FACTS. 

as those of M. Ampere and of Baron de Schilling' 
though in some respects not so efficient as either, for 
its action was slow, and it required a separate wire for 
each letter of the alphabet. It was considered a great 
advantage of this telegraph at the time, that it ex- 
hibited actual letters of the alphabet, instead of 
symbols. This was effected by having the twenty- 
six letters painted on a board, and concealed from 
view by a number of small paper screens, which 
were attached to magnetic needles. When any of 
the needles was deflected by sending an electric 
current through the surrounding coil, the screen 
was withdrawn and exposed the letter behind. 
Twenty-six keys, resembling those of a pianoforte, 
were ranged in connection, one with each wire, and 
on pressing down any one of the keys, contact was 
made between the battery and the wire connected 
with its associated magnetic needle ; and in this 
manner, messages might easily be transmitted and 
read. The objections to this telegraph, in the form 
in which it was exhibited, were not only the im- 
practicability of laying down and insulating so 
many wires, but the paper screens attached to the 
needles impeded their action, and rendered the 
transmission a very slow process. It is questionable, 
indeed, whether that telegraph could have been 
worked at all through a circuit of many miles. 

Mr. Davy's telegraph was similar to that of Mr. 
Alexander's, though much more compact and better 
arranged. The letters were painted on ground glass, 
lighted behind, so that when the screens were with- 
drawn the letters were seen in transparency. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



141 



Professor Wheatstone, who had for some previous 
years beeu endeavouring to perfect a practical electric 




telegraph, took out his first patent in 1837. It 
closely resembled in general features the telegraph 
of Baron de Schilling. It consisted of five magnetic 
needles, ranged side by side on a horizontal line that 
formed the diameter of a rhomb. The needles were 
suspended perpendicularly, being kept in that posi- 
tion by having the lower ends made slightly heavier 
than the upper. The rhomb was divided into thirty- 



142 GREAT FACTS. 

six equal parts by ten cross lines, and the needles 
were placed at the points where the lines intersected, 
as shown in the diagram. 

At each intersection, and along the boundary 
lines of the rhomb, letters were marked, any one of 
which might be pointed at by the combined action of 
two of the needles. Thus, if the two extreme needles 
were deflected inwards, one towards the left and the 
other towards the right, they would point to the 
letter A at the top of the rhomb. If the extreme 
needle on the left and the fourth one were similarly 
deflected, they would point to the letter JS / and thus 
all the letters marked on the intersections of the lines 
could be pointed to. A telegraph that could be 
worked with five circuits came within the range of 
practicability, and it was put into operation on the 
Great Western Railway as far as Slough, a distance 
of 18 miles. 

When the work of actually making communica- 
tion by insulated wires between places far apart 
came to be done, much difficulty arose as to the best 
and cheapest mode of doing it. The plan first at- 
tempted was to surround the wires with pitch, and to 
bury them in a trench in the ground. But this was 
found to be attended with great inconvenience, for 
the pitch cracked, and electric communication was 
established between the adjacent wires. The method 
of suspending the wires on posts was, we understand, 
suggested by Mr. Brunei, who had seen wires so sus- 
pended for other purposes on the Continent, and he 
recommended it to Mr. Cooke for the Electric Tele- 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 143 

graph. The plan was tried with success, and was 
generally adopted by the Electric Telegraph Com- 
pany in extending their lines over the country. We 
shall have occasion to revert to this practical part 
of the subject, when describing more particularly the 
means of making communication from one place to 
another. 

In continuing the history of the invention, as re- 
gards the different modes by which communications 
are transmitted along the insulated wires, the next 
telegraphs that deserve notice are those of Dr. Stein- 
heil, which became known also in 1837. One of his 
telegraphs made the signals by sounds, produced by 
magnetic needles striking, when deflected, against 
bells of different tones. By another telegraph of his 
invention the symbols w^ere marked upon paper by 
small tubes holding ink, fixed to the needles. In this 
manner the letters of the alphabet were indicated by 
dots upon a strip of paper, kept slowly moving by 
clock mechanism. This telegraph could be worked 
by a single circuit ; and it appears that Dr. Steinheil 
was the first who discovered, or at least who practi- 
cally applied, the conducting power of the earth for 
the return current. Each circuit, therefore, consisted 
of only a single wire ; the wire that had been pre- 
viously used to complete the circuit being superseded 
by burying in the earth, at each terminus, a small 
copper plate. Dr. Steinheil also introduced the use 
of galvanized iron wire. An electric telegraph of 
this constructio!] was put into operation at Munich, 
through a distance of 12 miles. 



144 GREAT FACTS. 

In the following year Messrs. Cooke and Wheat- 
stone so far simplified the arrangements of their 
needle telegraph as to make all the requisite signals 
with two needles. With a single combined battery 
and two wires six primary signals are thus obtained ; 
and by repeating the deflections and combining the 
action of the two needles, all the letters can be readily 
and quickly indicated. A single needle instrument 
was invented by Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone, but 
as there are only two primary signals, one to the right 
and one to the left, the deflections are necessarily re- 
peated more frequently, and the transmission is con- 
sequently more slow. The accompanying diagram 

I^ABC MNOP 

WW^WW , I II III III 

D E F ^ R S T 

\ \ \ 4 II III 

G H I / U V W 

V w V V / v/ V 

Q K L ' X Y Z 

^t \\ u ^\ 

represents the alphabet of the single needle instrument. 
The deflections for each letter commence in the di- 
rection of the short marks, and end with the long 
ones. Thus, to indicate the letter i?, the needle is first 
deflected once to the left and then once to the right ; 
and the letter D has the deflections reversed, begin- 
ning with one to the right and ending with one to the 
left. In no instance does it require more than four 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 145 

deflections to indicate a single letter, yet the trans- 
mission with the double needle is found so much 
quicker that the single needle instrument is only 
rarely used. 

At the end of each word, it is customary for the 
clerk at the receiving station to indicate, by a deflec- 
tion of the needle to the right, that he understands, 
or by a deflection to the left, that he does not under- 
stand, and in the latter case the word is repeated. 
In the early days of the Electric Telegraph, the 
transmission of 40 letters a minute with the double 
needle instrument w^as considered quick w^ork ; but 
the practised clerks will now transmit one hundred 
letters in that time, which is as fast as any person can 
write with pen and ink. 

Since the invention of the double and single 
needle telegraphs there have been many modifications 
in the instruments, to make them work more promptly 
and with less vibration ; but in all essential parts the 
telegraphs of Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone remain 
unaltered, and continue to be generally used in this 
country. 

Of the numerous other telegraph instruments that 
have been invented since 1837, that of Mr. Morse is 
in most general use, especially on the Continent and 
in America. Mr. Morse, indeed, claims to be the 
first inventor of a practical Electric Telegraph ; for, 
according to his statement, he, in 1832, invented a 
telegraph, which was in principle the same as the one 
now in use. It was not, however, till September, 
1838, that he made his instrument knowm in Europe, 
7 



146 GREAT FACTS. 

by sending a description of it with a model to the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris. Mr. Jackson, an 
American, disputed with Mr. Morse for the honour 
of the invention, and when the latter asserted that he 
had described his telegraph in 1832, to some passen- 
gers on board a packet-boat, Mr. Jackson affirmed 
that it was he who described it on that occasion, and 
that Mr. Morse, being present, got the idea from him. 
It is painful and difficult to decide when we find two 
claimants thus directly in opposition to each other, 
and mutually preferring charges of falsehood and 
fraud. The only safe guide in such cases is to refer 
to the earliest published and authentic descriptions of 
the inventions; and, following that guidance, the in- 
vention of what is called Morse's telegraph must be 
attributed to liim whose name it bears ; but we must, 
according to the same rule, date it several years later 
than 1832. 

Mr. Morse's telegraph is a recording instrument, 
that embosses the symbols upon paper, with a point 
pressed down upon it by an electro-magnet. The 
symbols that form the alphabet consist of combina- 
tions of short and long strokes, which by their repeti- 
tions and variations, are made to stand for difierent 
letters. Thus a stroke followed by a dot signifies the 
letter A; a stroke preceded by a dot, the letter jB ; a 
single dot, the letter JE^; and in this manner the 
whole alphabet is indicated, the number of repetitions 
in no case exceeding four for each letter. The letters 
and words are distinguished from one another by a 
longer space being left between them than between 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 147 

each mark that forms only a part of a letter or of a 
word. The annexed diagram represents the symbols 
for the whole alphabet. 



A B 


C D E F 


G HI 


K 


L M N 


P Q R S 


T U 


V W 


X Y Z 



The mechanism of this telegraph instrument is 
very simple. The transmitter is merely a spring key, 
like that of a musical instrument, which, on being 
pressed down, makes contact with the voltaic battery, 
and sends an electric current to the receiving station. 
The operator at the transmitting station, by thus 
making contact, brings into action an electro-magnet 
at the station he communicates with, and that pulls 
down a point fixed to the soft iron lever upon a strip 
of paper that is kept moving by clockwork slowly 
under it. The duration of the pressure on the key, 
whether instantaneous or prolonged for a moment, oc- 
casions the difference in the lengths of the lines indent- 
ed on the paper. A single circuit is sufficient for this 
telegraph, and a boy who is practised in the use of 
the instrument will transmit nearly as many words in 
a minute as can be sent by the double needle tele- 
• graph with two wires. 

The working of Mr. Morse's telegraph, it will be 
observed, depends altogether upon bringing into 
action at the receiving station an electro-magnet of 
sufficient force to mechanically indent paper. Now 



148 GREAT FACTS. 

the resistance to the passage of electricity along the 
wires diminishes the quantity transmitted so greatly, 
that at long distances it would be almost impossible 
to obtain sujfficient power for the purpose, if it acted 
directly. To overcome that difficulty, an auxiliary 
electro-magnet is employed. The electro-magnet 
which is directly in connection with the telegraph 
wire is a small one, surrounded by about 500 yards 
of very fine wire, for the purpose of multiplying as 
much as possible the effect of the feeble current that 
is transmitted. The soft iron keeper, wliich is at- 
tracted by that magnet, is also very light, so that it 
may be the more readily attracted. Thi^ hiigl^ly sen- 
sitive instrument serves to make and break contact 
with a local battery, which brings into action a large 
electro-magnet, and as tlie local battery and the mag- 
net are close to the place where the work is to be 
done, any required force may be easily obtained. By 
this means the marks may be impressed on the paper 
at distances of 400 miles or more apart. 

This is a very efficient and remarkably simple 
telegraph, and as it operates with a single wire, it has 
completely supplanted the needle telegraph on the 
Continent ; though the liability to error, common to 
all manipulated telegraphs, is considerably increased 
by this mode of transmission, nor can unintelligible 
signals be indicated and corrected so readily as by 
the needle instrument. 

There have been several modifications of Mr. 
Morse's telegraph, for the purpose of increasing the 
rapidity of its action and the distinctness of the marks. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 149 

The most important of these was made bj Mr. Bain, 
who in 1847 applied for this purpose the method of 
impressing the symbols on paper by electro-chemical 
decomposition. Mr. Davy had, in 1843, taken out a 
patent for the application of electro-chemical marks to 
telegraphic purposes, but his method was not suf- 
ficiently practical to be brought into use. Mr. Bain 
adopted an alphabet of short and long strokes, similar 
to that of Mr. Morse ; but instead of making and 
breaking contact by a key pressed down by the fin- 
ger, he punched holes in a strip of paper, correspond- 
ing in lengths and positions to the marks intended to 
be transmitted. A small metal spring, connected 
with the voltaic battery, pressed upon a metal cylin- 
der attached to the telegraph wire, and when the 
spring and cylinder touched, an electric current was 
transmitted. The strip of punched paper was placed 
upon the cylinder so as to interrupt the circuit, ex- 
cepting in the parts where the apertures allowed the 
spring to make contact ; therefore when the strip of 
paper was moved along, an electric current was 
transmitted through the apertures, and it was stopped 
when the paper intervened. At the receiving sta- 
tion, paper well moistened with a solution of prussiate 
of potass and nitric acid was placed upon a corre- 
sponding cylinder to receive the message, and a piece 
of steel wire was kept steadily pressed upon it as it 
moved along. The action of the electric current at 
the parts where it was transmitted caused the acid to 
enter into combination with the steel, and the conse- 
quent deposition of iron on the paper was instantly 



150 GREAT FACTS. 

converted by the prussiate of potass into Pnissian 
blue. On the parts where the electric current was 
interrupted no action took place, and thus numbers 
of short and long marks were made on the paper, cor- 
responding to the lengths of the apertures on the pre- 
pared message. A representation of the punched 
paper for transmitting the word " Bain " is shown in 
this diagram. 




As electro-chemical action takes effect much more 
rapidly than the mechanical movement of an indent- 
ing point, Mr. Bain's telegraph could work much faster 
than Mr. Morse's. We have been informed that as 
many as 1,000 letters per minute have occasionally 
been transmitted by this means from Manchester to 
London. The disadvantage attending that mode of 
transmission arises from the tedious process of punching 
the message preparatory to transmission; and though 
circumstances may arise in which it would be of great 
importance to adopt this rapid system of transmission 
with a single wire, it has been yet but little used in 
this country by the Electric Telegraph Company, who 
purchased Mr. Bain's patent for £10,000. 

Another modification of Mr. Morse's telegraph, 

which has been more extensively adopted in England, 

consists in merely substituting marks made on paper 

.by electro-chemical decomposition for those indented 

by pressure. It has been found desirable in practice, 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 151 

however, to introduce and auxiliaiy electro-magnet, 
called a " picker," for making and breaking contact, 
by wliicli arrangement the dotted marks can be made 
by a local battery, and any required amount of elec- 
tric power be obtained. The marks produced in this 
manner are more distinct, and are more quickly made, 
than by mechanical pressure. By a more recent ap- 
plication of Mr. Morse's system, the marks are made 
on paper with ink flowing through a glass pen, in the 
same manner as in the telegraph of M. Schweigger, 
already noticed. As the strip of paper is moved 
along, a continuous line is thus drawn on the paper. 
When no signals are being transmitted the line is 
straight, but when an electric current is sent through 
the wire, it brings into action an electro-magnet, 
which attracts the penholder on one side, and alters 
the direction of the mark. The transmission is effected 
by making and breaking contact with a key, and the 
continuance of the divergence of the mark from its 
normal direction is regulated by the duration of pres- 
sure on the key. The symbols are thus made by de- 
viations from the straight line, of different lengths 
and of varied combinations. Practical application 
alone can determine whether this mode of making 
the marks possesses any advantage over Mr. Morse's 
original plan. The patent for this telegraph was 
granted to Mr. Wilkins in 1854, but a similar instru- 
ment, applied to the notation of astronomical observa- 
tions, was shown in the American department of the 
Great Exhibition of 1851. 

The recording telegraph instruments hitherto no- 



152 GREAT FACTS. 

ticed impress on tlie paper only hieroglyph! cal sym- 
bols, which require long practice to decipher readily. 
It has, from the first practical application of the in- 
vention, been considered highly desirable that the 
letters of the alphabet should be indicated and print- 
ed in their proper forms, so that the momentary trans- 
mission of an electric current should leave behind a 
durable impression that could be read without diffi- 
culty. Professor Wheatstone and Mr. Bain separately 
attempted to accomplish this desired object by the 
invention of Printing Telegraphs, which print messages 
from types. It is a question in dispute which of them 
was the first to design a telegraph of this kind. In 
1845, Mr. Bain had a printing telegraph in operation 
experimentally on the South- Western Eailway, for a 
distance of seven miles, and we are not aware that 
Professor Wheatstone ever succeeded in working his 
printing instruments when separated at a distance 
from each other. In principle, both inventions were 
similar. A wheel, into the periphery of which were 
inserted types of the twenty-six letters, was made to 
rotate iti close proximity to a piece of paper, over 
which was placed a blackened surface that would 
leave a mark on the paper when pressed upon. 
When the required letter came opposite the paper, 
the type-wheel was stopped and forced against it, so 
that the letter was impressed, and the black from the 
interposed surface marked the form of the type. The 
paper was then moved forward to leave space for the 
next letter, and thus a continuous message could be 
printed. The objection to these instruments was the 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 153 

uncertainty of stopping the type-wheel at the proper 
point, so as to avoid printing wrong letters ; and when 
the instruments became thus irregular, they con- 
tinued so till they were again adjusted. This diffi- 
culty has since been overcome ; and by the combined 
efforts of Mr. House in America, and of Messrs. 
Brett in this country, the printing telegraph has at- 
tained a high degree of perfection. The mechanical 
arrangements of the instrument, though very com- 
plex, consist essentially, like those of Mr. Bain and 
Professor Wheatstone, in having a type-wheel, which, 
by the action of the operator at the transmitting instru- 
ment in making and breaking contact, moves or stops 
at the required point, and the letters are printed by 
forcing the paper against the type by an electro-mag- 
net. The movements of the type-wheel are regulated 
by an electro-magnet, and one great improvement in- 
troduced by Mr. Brett prevents the continuance of 
error, should any be made during transmission, by 
bringing the type- wheel to its first position after print- 
ing each letter, so that if a wrong letter be printed, 
the subsequent letters will not continue erroneous. 
This printing telegraph works with a single wire, but 
its operation is rather slow. 

The last recording telegraph we shall notice is the 
one invented by the author, which transmits copies 
of the handwriting of correspondents. The communi- 
cation to be transmitted is written upon tin foil, thinly 
coated with varnish, with a pen dipped in an ink com- 
posed of caustic soda and colouring matter. The 
alkali detaches the varnish, and when the surface is 
7* 



154 GREAT FACTS. 

washed over with a wet sponge^ tlie metal is exposed 
on those parts written upon, the writing appearing 
metallic on a dark ground. The message is then 
placed round a metal cylinder that is connected with 
the line wire from the receiving station. A brass 
point, in connection with the voltaic battery, lightly 
presses on the message as the cylinder rotates, so that 
the electric circuit is made and broken through the 
message as it passes under the connecting point, the 
coating of varnish on the foil being suJBicient to in- 
terrupt the electric current in those parts where the 
point is resting upon it. On a corresponding cylinder 
in the electric circuit, at the receiving station, paper 
moistened with a solution of prussiate of potass and 
nitrate of soda is placed to receive the message ; and 
it is pressed upon by the point of a steel wire, in 
connection with the communicating wire. The accom- 
panying diagram will assist in explaining the arrange- 
ment. 

The cylinder of the instrument is shown at a; h 
is the metal style connected by the wire g with one 
of the poles of the voltaic battery ; o is the arm which 
holds the style and serves to insulate it from the rest 
of the apparatus ; (^ is a fine screw on which that arm 
traverses as the cylinder revolves ; d d are cog-wheels 
to turn the screw. The speed of the instrument is 
regulated by the fan e; f\^ the impelling weight, 
and A the wire connected with the distant instrument. 
The receiving and the transmitting instruments are 
alike, the only difi*erence between them being that 
the style of the copying instrument is steel instead of 
brass wire. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



155 



As the cylinder a is connected by the wire li with 
the distant instrument, and through it with one of 
the poles of the voltaic battery, the electric circuit is 
completed by passing from g through the tin foil 




message, or through the paper placed on the cylinder. 
This will be the case whenever the style of the trans- 
mitting instrument is pressing on the metallic writing ; 
and at those times the electro-chemical action of the 
voltaic current will produce a blue mark on the paper 
of the receiving instrument, by the deposition of iron 
and its combination with the prussiate of potass. The 
circuit will in like manner be interrupted whenever 



156 GKEAT FACTS. 

the point h presses on those parts of the message where 
the varnish is not removed ; and thus, as the two cyl- 
inders revolve, there will be a succession of small blue 
marks on the parts where the writing allows the 
electric current to pass. As the arms that carry the 
points traverse on screws, they are drawn along as 
the cylinders rotate, so as to press on fresh parts of 
the message and of the paper at each revolution. The 
steel point would therefore draw a series of spiral lines 
on the paper, if the electi'ic current were not inter- 
rupted ; but the interposition of the varnish breaks 
those lines, and as the point passes over different por- 
tions of the letters at each revolution of the cylinder, 
the marks and the interruptions on the paper corres- 
pond exactly with the forms of the letters, and thus 
produce a copy of the writing placed upon the re- 
ceiving cylinder, in blue characters on a yellowish 
ground. Or the message may be written on unpre- 
pared tin foil with a j)en dipped in varnish ; in which 
case the writing will be copied in white characters on 
a ground of dark lines, as in the accompanying speci- 
men, A being the writing on tin foil, and £ the mes- 
sage received. 

It is essential to the perfect working of the copying 
telegraph that the corresponding instruments should 
rotate exactly together. This is effected by an electro- 
magnetic regulator, which being put in action by one 
instrument, governs the movements of the distant in- 
strument with the greatest exactness, as proved at a 
distance of 300 miles. 

It might be supposed, as the points must traverse 



i 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



157 



several times over the same line of writing to copy 
it, that the process is a slow one ; but in consequence 
of the rapidity with which the cylinders revolve, this 
is not the case. The ordinary speed is one rotation 




in two seconds, and at that rate three lines of writing, 
containing sixty words, would be copied in one min- 
ute, which is three times as fast as an expeditious 
penman can write. 

The advantages proposed to be gained by the copy- 
ing telegraph, in addition to its increased rapidity of 
transmission, are the authentication of telegraphic 
correspondence by the signatures of the writers, free- 
dom from the errors of transmission, and the mainte- 
nance of secrecy. As a special means of obtaining 
secrecy, the messages may be received on paper moist- 
ened with a solution of nitrate of soda alone, in which 
case they would be invisible until brushed over with 
a solution of prussiate of potass, to be applied by the 
person to whom the communication is addressed. 

Professor Wheatstone has recently contrived an 
improvement in his index telegraph, which was 
described by Professor Faraday in a lecture at the 



158 GREAT FACTS. 

Eoyal Institution in June last. Its chief merit, how- 
ever, consists in the beauty of the mechanism, for 
it is essentially the same as the index telegraphs he 
and others have previously invented, with the sub- 
stitution of magneto-electricity for the moving force. 

Having now traced the history of the invention of 
the instruments by means of which messages may be 
transmitted, it becomes necessary to describe the 
methods employed for making the electrical connec- 
tion from one place to another. This part of the 
electric telegraph system is, after all, the most essen- 
tial to its efficient working, and bears the same rela- 
tion to the transmitting instruments that the structure 
of a railroad does to locomotive engines in the system 
of railway conveyance. 

The fact that an electric current might be sent 
through a long circuit had been established by Dr. 
Watson, in conjunction with other Fellows of the 
Eoyal Society, in 1747, when they sent the charge of 
a Ley den jar through two miles of wire, supported 
upon short sticks driven into the gromid ; the wire at 
each terminus being connected with the earth for the 
return current. This method of insolation and con- 
duction fully answered the purpose, and served to de- 
termine the gj-eat velocity with which electricity is 
transmitted, for no perceptible interval occurred be- 
tween the discharge of the Ley den jar at one end of 
the circuit, and its effect at the other extremity. 

Mr. Ronalds made the next experiment on an ex- 
tensive scale, by insulating eight miles of wire in glass 
tubes, the wire being carried backwards and forwards 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 159 

for that distance on his lawn at Hammersmith. That 
mode of insulation was found very efficient. It was, 
indeed, too perfect, for the difficulty arose of discharg- 
ing the electricity from the wire after the charge had 
passed through it. 

The length of telegraphic communication estab- 
lished at Munich, in 1837, by Dr. Steinheil, was an 
important practical advance in the system of extend- 
ing and insulating the wires, and deserves considera- 
tion, not only from the extent to which it w^as carried 
into practical operation, but from the circumstance 
tliat the earth was employed to form the return cir- 
cuit. The wires appear to have been carried through 
the city by extending them from the church towers 
and other elevated buildings. That plan, indeed, pre- 
sents so many facilities for passing telegraph wires 
through towns, that it is not improbable it may be 
ultimately adopted in this country. 

Though the conducting power of the earth was 
thus early made use of for one-half of the circuit, the 
fact seems to have been unknown in England at the 
time of laying down the telegraph wires to Slough in 
1845, for a separate wire was then used for the return 
current. Some years afterwards, indeed, Mr. Bain 
laid claim to the discovery ; but the fact that the con- 
ducting power of the earth had been previously 
applied to the purpose by Dr. Steinheil has been in- 
contestably proved. 

In the early stages of the practical application of 
electric telegraphs in this country, Mr. Cook took an 
active part in overcoming the numerous difficulties 



160 



GREAT FACTS. 




attending the proper protection and insulation of the 
wires. In the first instance, the plan of burying the 

wires in trenches was 
tried, but with very indif- 
ferent success, as the as- 
phaltum and other resin- 
ous substances with which 
it was attempted to insu- 
late them were inadequate 
for the purpose, and allow- 
ed the electricity to escape 
from wire to wire. The 
method of supporting the 
wires on tall posts was then 
adopted by Mr. Cooke, the 
wires being insulated from the posts at the points of 
suspension, by passing them through quills. Yarious 
improvements have since been made in the insulators, 
and the plan most in favour at present is to pass the 
wires through globular earthenware or glass insula- 
tors, attached to the posts, as shown in the annexed 
diagram. The wires themselves are about one-sixth 
of an inch in diameter ; they are made of iron coated 
with zinc, or galvanized, as it is termed, to protect 
them from rust. 

Notwithstanding the great care taken to insulate 
the wires at the posts, a large quantity of the elec- 
tricity escapes in wet weather, and returns to the bat- 
tery without having reached the most distant stations, 
and thus not unfrequently the communications are 
interrupted. The author is of opinion that the loss of 



THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH. 161 

electricity in wet weather is occasioned rather by 
communication from one wire to another through the 
moist atmosphere, than by defective insulation at the 
posts. In confirmation of this opinion it may be 
stated, that he has experimentally determined that a 
working electric current might be transmitted from 
London to Liverpool, if all the points of attachment 
were connected by water with the surface of the 
ground, provided that the rest of the wire were in- 
sulated."^ 

The use of gutta percha as an insulating covering 
for wire has given rise to a new era in telegraphic 
communication. Gutta percha is an excellent insu- 
lator, and wire covered with two coatings of that 
naaterial, about one-sixteenth of an inch each, is so far 
protected, that 100 miles of it immersed in water 
transmits an electric current from a powerful voltaic 
battery with very trifling loss. This perfection in in- 
sulation has greatly facilitated the establisliment of 
telegraphic communication between England and the 
Continent. The first attempt to establish a submarine 
circuit between Dover and Calais took place on the 
28th of August, 1850. A single copper wire, about 
the thickness of a common bell wire, coated thickly 
with gutta percha, was laid across the English Chan- 
nel experimentally, without any protection. It proved 
sufiicient for the transmission of an electric current, 
and several messages were sent through it between 
Dover and Calais ; but it was far too feeble to resist 

* " Manual of Electricity," p. 251 ; and Reports of the Proceed- 
ings of the British Aesociation for 1851 and 1854. 



162 GREAT FACTS. 

the action of the waves, and the following day it was 
cut through by friction against the rocks, and the 
communication was stopped. 

The plan afterwards adopted for a permanent sub- 
marine line was to enclose five similar wires in a 
hollow iron wire cable. The wires were first slightly 
twisted, to prevent them from being broken when 
stretched. They were then covered with hempen 
yarn, to protect the gutta percha from attrition, and 
they were thus introduced into the hollow cable, of 
which they formed the core. The accompanying 
woodcut represents this structure of the cable ; the 




five twisted wires are shown at G ; B represents the 
same covered with hemp yarn : and A a portion of 
the completed cable, constructed of thick iron wire 
galvanized. This cable has now been laid down for 
seven years, and with perfect success. Its strength 
has often been severely tested, as it has been some- 
time drawn up by ships' anchors, and considerably 
strained ; but it has not been broken, and the insula- 
tion is almost perfect. The success of this submarine 
cable has induced the extension of that means of com- 
municating with the Continent, and similar subma- 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 163 

rine telegraph cables have been laid down from Dover 
to Ostend, from Harwich to the Hague, from Scotland 
to Ireland, and across the Mediterranean Sea as far 
as Malta. The w^eight and \he cost of those cables 
present a serious obstacle to their adoption in forming 
a telegraphic commmiication with America; and 
when it was determined to attempt to establish elec- 
trical connection with the New World, a different 
form of cable was adopted. The conductor of the 





electric current in the Atlantic cable is 
composed of seven strands of fine copper 
wire twisted together, the aggregate thick- 
ne'ss of which is not greater than the single 
copper wire of other submarine cables. This fine 
copper cord is covered carefully with gutta percha ; 
it is then coated with tarred hemp, and is protected 
externally by an iron wire rope, composed of nume- 
rous strands of fine wire. The form and exact size of 
the cable are shown in the accompanying drawing 
and section. The central dots in the section are the 
conducting wires round which are the gutta percha 
and hemp, and the outer rim represents the iron wire 
casing. 

The successful laying down of so frail a cable, after 
many failures, affords good ground for hoping that, 



164 GEE AT FACTS. 

with the experience abeady gained, subsequent efforts 
will prove more satisfactory and much less expensive 
than this first attempt to establish telegraphic com- 
munication with America. The most questionable 
part of the problem has, indeed, been already solved ; 
for the transmission of electric signals, through that 
length of submerged wire, was at one time doubted ; 
and though the communication through the present 
cable has ceased, it has sufficiently established the 
fact, that telegraphic communication with America is 
a practicable undertaking. 

The excellent insulation obtained by means of 
gutta percha covered wires has caused a return to the 
original plan of burying the wires in trenches in the 
ground. The British and Submarine Telegraph Com- 
pany make all their communications by that means ; 
the number of coated wires required being enclosed in 
iron tubes, and laid in the ground along the common 
roads. That plan is, however, attended with consider- 
able disadvantages. In the first place, the cost of the 
coated copper wire is more than quadruple that of 
galvanized iron wire ; and though copper, compared 
with iron, offers only one-seventh part the resistance 
to the transmission of electricity, yet the thin wire 
employed is scarcely equal in conducting power to the 
galvanized iron wire usually supported on posts. The 
quantity of electricity transmitted is therefore less, and 
the comparative intensity of it is greater. 

Another difficulty attending the use of insulated 
wires buried in the ground arises from a very peculiar 
condition of electrical conduction, that could scarcely 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 165 

have been anticipated. The wire, coated with gutta 
percha, and surrounded externally with water or with 
moist earth, becomes an elongated Leydenjar; the 
gutta percha representing the glass, the wire the in- 
side coating, and the water the conducting surface 
outside. Thus, when electricity is transmitted through 
such a medium, a portion of the charge is retained 
after connection with the battery has been broken. 
This effect increases with the length of the wire and 
the intensity of the current ; and it materially inter- 
feres with the working of many telegraph instruments. 
In some experiments with the copying telegraph at 
the Gutta Percha Works in the City Road, it was 
found that through a circuit of 50 miles of wire im- 
mersed in water, the mark made by electro-chemical 
decomposition on paper had a tendency to become 
continuous ; so that instead of ceasing to mark, when 
the varnish interrupted the current, a line was drawn 
continuously on the paper, though the stronger marks 
where the current passed were sufficient to make the 
writing legible. The retention of the charge was also 
shown still more remarkably by the explosion of gun- 
powder by the electricity retained in the wire half a 
minute after connection with the battery had been 
broken. It is owing to the retention of the electricity 
by the wire that the slowness with which the mes- 
sages through the Atlantic cable were transmitted is 
to be attributed, and not to the length of the cable. 
The rate of one word a minute was the average speed 
of transmission when the first messages were sent 
through the wire. The effect of the retardation of the 



166 GREAT FACTS. 

electric current is comparatively insignificant and were 
it not for tlie peculiar action of the surrounding water, 
the messages might have been transmitted twelve 
times faster than they were. 

The cost of constructing a telegraphic line has 
greatly diminished with the increased facilities of in- 
sulating the wires, and since the expiration of patents, 
which conferred a monopoly on certain plans of doing 
so. The cost to the Great Western Eailway Company 
for a line of six wires to Slough, was £150 per mile, 
with comparatively low and slender posts and very 
imperfect insulation. The cost of the same number 
of wires at the present day would not be one-half that 
sum, with thicker wires and better insulation. 

It is customary in England to restrict the suspen- 
sion of telegraphic wires to railways, from the notion 
that the protection of railways is necessary to prevent 
wilful damage to the wires ; and as the Electric Tele- 
graph Company have made exclusive arrangements 
with all the railway companies out of London, the 
competing telegraph companies have preferred to lay 
their wires underground rather than incur the sup- 
posed risk of damage to the wires if suspended from 
posts on common roads, though by this means the cost 
of construction is at least quadrupled. The protection 
which railways afford is, however, more imaginary 
than real, for any one inclined to interrupt the com- 
munication could easily do so ; and if on common 
roads proper precautions were taken in fixing the posts, 
and a heavy penalty were imposed on wilful off^enders, 
the common roads and open fields w^ould, there can 



THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH. 167 - 

be little doubt, offer as safe a course for the telegraphic 
wires as railways. 

The conducting power of the earth is now em- 
ployed by all electric telegraph companies for one-half 
of every circuit. Thus, whether a communication be 
sent from London to Liverpool, to Edinburgh, Paris, 
or Brussels, the moist earth serves to complete one-half 
of the communication. In the telegraphic circuit be- 
tween London and Liverpool, for example, the insu- 
lated wire is connected at each end with the earth 
by being soldered to a copper plate, which is buried 
a few feet underground, so as to insure its being 
always surrounded with moisture. To improve the 
connection of this plate with the earth, it is customary 
to bury with it a quantity of sulphate of copper, the 
solution of which surrounds the earth-x^late with a 
better conducting liquid than water, and thus extends 
the connecting surface. The gas pipes or water pipes 
are sometimes employed for the attachment of the 
wires instead of an earth-plate, but the latter is gener- 
ally preferred. 

In arranging a telegraphic circuit, the voltaic 
batteries and the instruments are introduced at breaks 
in the telegraph wire. The course of the electric cur- 
rent is from the copper end of the battery through the 
transmitting instrument, then along the wire to the 
receiving instrument ; from that it passes to the earth 
and is thus returned to the transmitting station, where 
it completes the circuit by being conducted from the 
earth-plate to the zinc end of the voltaic battery. The 
arrangement for completing the circuit will be more 



168 



GREAT FACTS. 



clearly understood by reference to the accompanying 
diagram. 




The wire from (7, which is the copper pole of the 
voltaic battery, is connected with the instrument A ; 
the electric current is then transmitted along the wire 
D to the receiving instrument JS / thence it is trans- 
ferred to the earth-plate ^5 passes through the earth to 
the corresponding plate jE"', which is connected with 
Zj the zinc pole of the battery. When a communica- 
tion is returned from ^ to ^, a similar arrangement 
is made ; the wires connected with the instruments 
being so arranged as to bring into action a voltaic 
battery at JB^ and to throw out of circuit the one at 
A ; for the connection with the battery is only made 
when the transmitting instrument is worked. 

Since all the electric telegraphs in different parts 
of the world are connected with the earth, as one por- 
tion of the circuit, it might be supposed that the 
various currents would mingle, and occasion a con- 
fusion of messages ; but it must be borne in mind that 
no electric current is formed until a communication be 
made from one pole of a voltaic battery to the other, 
and as such communication can only be completed 
through the insulated wire, the earth-currents cannot 



I 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 169 

mingle, but each one passes to the proper terminus of 
its respective battery. The accompanying diagram 
and explanation may serve to remove the difficulty of 
understanding why the two circuits are maintained 
quite distinct. 






K 



i 




The letters A B represent the wires making com- 
munications between the batteries D and E^ and the 
telegraph instruments I at the receiving station. 
The electricity from the copper end of the battery D 
would be conducted along A. through the instrument 
Z, and by the wire ^to the earth-plate H. It would 
be then transmitted through the earth on its return to 
the battery, in the direction of the arrows, to the other 
earth-plate G, and thence it would find its way to the 
zinc pole of the battery D^ and complete the circuit. 
In the same manner, the electric current from the 
copper end of the battery jE would be transmitted 
through the wire ^, and would complete its current 
also by means of the earth-plates G 11^ and would 
traverse the course indicated by the arrows, and re- 
turn to the zinc end of E, Though both electric 
currents traverse the same wire from the instruments 
I to the earth-plate H^ and are thence transmitted 
through the earth to a single plate, G^ at the trans- 



170 GREAT FACTS. 

mitting station, there is no mingling of currents, the 
electric current of each battery being kept as distinct 
as if separate wires were used both for the transmitted 
and the return current. It would, indeed, be as im- 
possible for the separate currents transmitted from the 
two batteries to be mingled together, as it would be 
for the written contents of two letters enclosed in the 
same mail-bag to intermix."^ 

The length of telegraph lines at present laid down 
by the several telegraph companies in Great Britain, 
exceeds 10,000 miles. To complete those lines re- 
quired 40,000 miles of wire, and there are 3,000 per- 
sons engaged in the transmission of telegraphic 
intelligence. 

In North America there is a direct communication 
from ISTew York to N'ew Orleans, a distance of 2,000 
miles, through the whole length of which wires 
messages can be transmitted without any break. 
Wires have also been suspended on lofty posts across 
the Indian Peninsula, where no railways have been 
yet laid down. Lines of insulated wire, partly sub- 
merged in the sea, partly buried underground, and 
partly suspended on posts in the air, place London 
and Vienna in direct communication ; and other tele- 
graph lines are in the course of construction, which 
will unite London with Africa : and a complete net- 
work of telegraph wires is spreading over the face of 
Europe. 

It will not be long before this system of communi- 

* "Manual of Electricity," second edition, p. 247. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. l7l 

cation IS connected with a similar one in America. 
The faihire of the cable already laid down has con- 
firmed the opinion of the author, expressed in papers 
read at meetings of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and in his work on Elec- 
tricity, that the conducting wire should be sufficiently 
strong to be self-protective, without requiring an ex- 
ternal coating of iron wire rope. A conducting cop- 
per wire, a quarter of an inch in diameter, covered 
with gutta percha and tarred hemp, would be more 
flexible and stronger than the combined cable ; and 
it being a much better conductor of electricity, the 
rapiditj^ of transmission would be greatly increased. 

The effect of the establishment of competing tele- 
graph companies in England has been to diminish the 
charge for transmitting messages, in some instances 
to one-fifth of the rate formerly demanded ; and 
when further experience in the construction of tele- 
graphic lines, and the adoption of more rapidly trans- 
mitting instruments, have facilitated and improved 
the means of communication, we may anticipate that 
correspondence by Electric Telegraph will in a great 
measure supersede the transmission of letters by post. 



ELECTEO-MAGNETIO CLOCKS. ' 

The invention of Electro-Magnetic Clocks closely 
followed the introduction of the electric telegraph ; 
and Professor Wheatstone, to whom the world is 
principally indebted, in conjunction with Mr. Cooke, 
for the perfection and application of the needle tele- 
graphic instrument, claims also to be the original in- 
ventor of Electro-Magnetic Clocks. His claim is, 
however, disputed by Mr. Bain, who asserts that he 
was the first who conceived the idea of applying the 
power of electro-magnets to the regulation and move- 
ments of clocks, and it must be admitted that he 
brought the invention into a working state. 

In the first stage of the invention, the object at- 
tempted to be attained Avas to regulate several clocks, 
once an hour — or oftener, if required — so that they 
might all indicate precisely the same time. For 
this purpose Mr. Bain took for a standard time-keep- 
er a clock of the best possible construction, placed in 
circumstances favourable to maintaining accuracy. 
The minute-hand of his clock, the instant that it 
pointed to the hour, made connection with a voltaic 
battery that brought into action a series of electro- 
magnets attached to the clocks to be regulated ; one 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS. 173 

of them being fixed on the top of each clock. Its 
momentary action was made to collapse a pair of 
clippers, which in closing seized the minute-hand of 
the clock to which it Avas attached, and brought it to 
the hour point. Thus all the clocks in the series 
could be regulated every hour, for the collapse of 
th« clippers pushed the hand forward if it were too 
late, or thrust it back if it had gained. Mr. Bain 
contemplated the application of this contrivance to 
all the public clocks of a town, by having wires laid 
down in the streets to connect them in one voltaic 
circuit. Such a plan would, however, have involved 
greater expense and trouble in its accomplishment 
than the object seemed to merit; but the regulation 
of any number of clocks in a large establishment 
might have been practicable by that means. We are 
not aware, however, that this mode of regulating 
clocks by electricity was ever adopted, and it has 
since been superseded by an arrangement made by 
Mr. Shepherd, junior, to be presently noticed. 

Improving on this first application of electro- 
magnetism to the regulation of clocks, Mr. Bain 
afterwards employed the power to keep the clocks 
in action, so that each clock might be propelled by 
magnets alone, without any weight, and without the 
ordinarj^ train of wheels. 

Every one acquainted with the mechanism of a 
clock is aware that the weight communicates motion 
to a train of wheels, and that the movement is regu- 
lated by the vibration of a pendulum, which is acted 
on by the last wheel of the train. That wheel, called 



1*74 GREAT FACTS. 

the escapement, is so formed, that each tooth catches 
in succession into a detent fixed on the penduhim 
near the point of suspension, which allows one tooth 
to pass at each double vibration. The pendulum, 
therefore, governs the movement of the train of 
wheels by checking the escapement, and allowing 
the teeth to pass one by one ; and as pendulums of 
given lengths vibrate in given times, if their actions 
be not interfered with, the clocks will keep regular 
time. But the pressure of the escape-wheel against 
the detent, and the consequent friction, prevent the 
pendulum from acting freely. In the best made 
clocks there are special contrivances to detach the 
pendulum as much as possible from the wheels, and 
likewise to compensate for variations in the length 
of the pendulum by change of temperature. 

In the clocks actuated by electro-magnetism, the 
movement of the pendulum is not maintained by 
repeated impulses of the escape-wheel, as in ordinary 
clocks, but by magnetic attraction ; an electro-mag- 
net being so arranged as to attract the bob of the 
pendulum in both directions alternately. In Mr. 
Bain's arrangement, the bob of the pendulum is 
formed of a hollow coil of covered copper wire, 
which, on the transmission of an electric current, 
becomes magnetic, and it is then attracted by several 
permanent magnets fixed in a hollow horizontal bar, 
over which the coil of wire moves. The accompany- 
ing diagram Avill serve to explain more clearly the 
parts of the clock on which the movement of the 
pendulum depends. 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS 



175 



The pendulum rod, B^ is made of wood, and the 
bob, A^ consists of a hollow coil of thick copper wire 
covered with cotton, through which the hollow bar, 
C (7, passes. Inside that bar there are several perma- 
nent magnets, packed on each side of the ends of the 
coil of wire, the poles of those on one side being the 
opposite of those on the other. lu the diagram only 
one magnet on each side 
is represented, n and ^, to 
prevent confusion. The ends 
of the coil of wire are at- 
tached to the pendulum rod, 
and they are conducted up 
it so as to form connection 
Avith the wires of the voltaic 
battery, which are connected 
with gold studs inserted into 
a horizontal stage fixed to 
the clock-case. A small 
movable bridge, formed of 
w^ire, and having the ends tipped with gold or plati- 
num, rests upon the stage, and is shifted from side to 
side by the pendulum. In these movements the gold 
points touch and slide over the gold studs in the stage, 
and thereby make and break contact with the voltaic 
battery, and alternately send and interrupt an electric 
current through the coil of wire. 

Suppose, for instance, that the pendulum is about 
to rise to the right towards 5, at which time the 
voltaic circuit is completed. The coil is, therefore, 
magnetic, and is attracted by the permanent magnet 




176 GREAT FACTS.. 

in G, As tlie pendulam approaches the end of its 
swing, it pushes the movable bridge away from the 
gold studs on wliich it rests, and thus breaks connec- 
tion with the voltaic battery, and the pendulum 
descends unrestrained by the attractive force of the 
magnets. As the pendulum descends towards its 
low^est point, it shifts the bridge on to the metal studs 
on the other side, which are so disposed as to send 
a current through the coil in a direction opposite to 
the former, so that the poles of the voltaic battery are 
reversed, and the attractive force is exerted in draw- 
ing the pendulum towards the left hand. In this 
manner th^ power imparted to the coil, as the pen- 
dulum vibrates to and fro, produces a continuous 
repetition of the attraction on each side alternately, 
and maintains a constant action. 

The only wheels required in a clock of this kind 
are those wdiich turn the hands ; and the motion is 
communicated from the pendulum to the seconds 
wheel by means of a small attached lever, w^orking 
on a ratchet wheel. The minute and the hour hands 
derive their moyements from the seconds wheel in 
the usual manner. 

The voltaic battery employed to work Mr. Bain's 
clocks consists of a pair of large copper and zinc 
plates buried in the moist earth, which excite a suffi- 
cient amount of electricity to maintain the motion of 
the pendulum. A battery of this kind will remain in 
action a long time, and will serve to keep a clock 
going for several months. It is, indeed, a near 
approach to the attainment of perpetual motion, 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS. 177 

since nothing but the wearing away of the materials, 
or the accumulation of dust on the connecting points, 
seems to prevent the realization of that mechanical 
chimera. 

There is a disadvantage attending the arrangement 
of Mr. Bain's clocks, arising from the attachment of 
the pendulum to the wheels ; and as the moving force 
is derived directly from voltaic electricity, any varia- 
tion in the power of the battery causes variation in 
the lengths of the vibrations, and produces irregularity. 
For the purpose of remedying these defects, Mr. Shep- 
herd, junior, has adopted an arrangement which de- 
taches the pendulum from the clock movement, and 
makes its vibrations altogether independent of the 
varying force of voltaic batteries. 

In Mr. Shepherd's arrangement, the impulse of 
the pendulum is given by successive blows from a 
spring, which is drawn back and then liberated at 
each vibration. The hands of the clock are also moved 
by electro-magnets, by which means the impelling 
forces and the resistances encountered by the pendulum 
are always constant. By making the pendulum thus 
independent of the works, and employing it merely to 
make and break contract at regular intervals, any 
number of clocks in the same establishment may be 
set in motion, and kejDt exactly together, by a single 
pendulum. 

The large clock over the principal entrance to the 
Great Exhibition was on this construction. It would 
have been impossible, with any approach to regularity, 
to have moved hands of that size, exposed as they 



178 GREAT FACTS. 

were to the wind, unless the penduhim had been in- 
dependent of such resistances. 

Electro-Magnetic Clocks have not yet come into 
general use, partly owing to imperfections in the bat- 
tery connections, which occasionally put a stop to 
their movements, but principally on account of the 
high prices charged by the patentees. As no trains 
of wheels are requisite in an Electro-Magnetic Clock, 
it might be manufactured very cheaply ; and when 
the price is reduced to its proper standard, and the 
trifling practical defects are remedied, these clocks 
may possibly supersede others. 



ELECTEO-METALLUEGY. 

The electrotype, electro-gilding and plating, and 
the other applications of the deposition of metals 
from their solutions, by the agency of voltaic elec- 
tricity, had their origin in the chance observation of 
peculiarities in frequently repeated experiments. In 
this, as in most other inventions, there are contending 
claimants for priority ; but there is little merit due to 
any of the first discoverers of the process, who seem 
to have been guided altogether by accident. It seems 
strange, now, on observing the extensive use that is 
made of the deposition of metals, that it should have 
remained so long unapplied after the principle had 
been known. 

The " revivification," as it was called, of metals 
from their solutions by voltaic electricity, was known 
at the beginning of the present century ; for, in 1805, 
Brugnatelli, an Italian chemist, gilded a silver medal 
by connecting it with the negative pole of a voltaic 
battery, when immersed in a solution of ammoniuret 
of gold. It did not occur to him, however, that any 
use could be made of that mode of gilding, and the 
experiment had no result. 



180 GREAT FACTS. 

Nothing further was done, even experimentally, 
towards advancing the art of electrotyping, until Mr. 
Spencer, of Liverpool, when experimenting with a 
Daniell's batter}'-, in 1837, accidentally coated a penny 
piece with copper ; and when the thin sheet of metal 
was removed, he found on it an exact counterpart of 
the head and letters of the coin. Even this did not 
suggest any useful application ; nor was it until, by a 
further accident, a drop of varnish fell on the copper 
of the negative pole, and showed that no deposition 
took place .on the part so covered, that the idea oc- 
curred to him of turning the deposition of the copper 
to account. The method he adopted of doing so was 
to cover a copper plate with varnish or wax, and to 
etch a design through the covering. By then expos- 
ing the plate to the action of a solution of sulphate of 
copper, when in connection with the negative pole of 
a voltaic battery, the metal was deposited in the lines 
drawn through the varnish, and a design in relief was 
fixed to the copper. This slight advance in the art was 
not made known until it was announced, in 1839, that 
Professor Jacobi, of St. Petersburg, had made appli- 
cation of the same process. Mr. Spencer, indeed, was 
forestalled, even in this country, by Mr. Jordan, a 
printer, who published an account in the Mechanics' 
Magazine for May, 1839, of a method of making cop- 
per casts by the deposition of copper from its solution. 
In the autumn of the same year, however, Mr. Spen- 
cer exhibited to the British Association several more 
perfect specimens of electrotyping, that showed the 
process might be rendered valuable ; and from that 



ELECTEO-METALLURGY. 181 

time rapid progress was made in bringing it into prac- 
tical operation in a variety of ways. 

The deposition of copper from its solution, when 
imder the action of voltaic electricity, is not produced 
by the decomposition of the sulphate of copper, as 
might be supposed, but by the decomposition of the 
water that acts as the solvent of the metallic salt. 
Thus, when two platinum wires from the poles of a 
voltaic battery are introduced into acidulated water, 
hydrogen gas is disengaged at the wire connected 
with the negative pole, and oxygen at the other ; but 
when a solution of sulphate of copper is substituted 
for water, the hydrogen that is disengaged combines 
with the oxygen that held the copper in solution, and 
the metal is liberated. The copper thus liberated 
from its combination with the oxygen is de2:)osited, in 
a pure metallic state, on the surface connected with 
the negative pole of the battery. 

The simplest illustration of electro-metallic depo- 
sition is obtained by immersing a silver spoon and a 
strip of zinc into a solution of sulphate of copper. So 
long as the two metals are kept apart, no change 
takes place on the silver, but on bringing them into 
contact, voltaic action immediately commences, and 
a coating of copper is deposited upon the spoon, and 
adheres firmly to the metal. If the action be con- 
tinued, and the supply of copper be maintained by 
the addition of fresh crystals of the sulphate, the coat 
of copper may be increased in thickness to almost 
any extent. 

The first applications of the discovery were directed 



182 GREAT FACTS. 

to the copying of medals and coins. An impression 
of the metal was obtained in fusible metal, which is 
an alloy composed of tin, lead, and bismuth, melted 
together in the proportions of two of the latter to one 
each of the former. This alloy expands on cooling, 
and thus affords a very sharp impression of the medals ; 
and as it melts at a low temperature, it may be easily 
removed after the copper coating has been deposited 
upon it. 

An electrotype mould, obtained directly from the 
medal, is, however, more sharp in its definition than 
an impression, and is therefore preferable, when cir- 
cumstances admit of its being so taken. For that pur- 
pose, the surface whereon the deposition is to be made 
is smeared over with sweet oil, or with black lead. It 
is then carefully wiped with cotton wool, but a minute 
quantity of the oil will still remain, sufficient to pre- 
vent the metal from adhering. 

A simple form of apparatus for the electrotype 
process is shown in the accompanying diagram. 

An earthenware jar, ^, serves to hold the solution 
of copper, which should be maintained in a saturated 
state by the addition of crystals of the salt. A porous 
tube, 5, holds a rod of amalgamated zinc, to the top 
of which a binding-screw is soldered. The copper 
mould or medal, c^ is suspended in the solution by a 
wire, which is held tight by the binding-screw, d. 
The porous jar is then filled to the same height as the 
copper solution in the jar with diluted sulphuric acid, 
in the proportions of one of acid to twenty of water. 



ELEC TRO-METALLURGY. 



183 




Yoltaic action immediately 
commences, and the copper 
will continue to be deposited 
from the solution as long as 
the supply of fresh crystals 
of sulphate of copper is con- 
tinued. In about twenty-four 
hours the coating of copper 
will be as thick as a thin 
card, and it may be then re- 
moved. When detached from 
the medal, it will be found to 
be an exact counterpart, in 
the minutest details, of the 
original; those parts of the 
medal which are in relief being, of course, the reverse 
in the mould. 

The extreme minuteness and delicacy of the elec- 
trotype process is strikingly exemplified in its appli- 
cation to the transference of engraved copper-plates. 
A highly finished engraved copper-plate has a film 
of metal deposited over its whole surface, which, when 
detached, exhibits all the lines that are cut into the 
copper-plate in relief. That electrotype cast then 
serves as the mould for further depositions, in which 
every line in the original engraving is so perfectly de- 
veloped, that it is impossible to detect a difi'erence in 
the impressions taken from the two plates. By this 
means any number of casts may be made and w^orked 
from, whilst the original is preserved uninjured. The 
objection to this application is that the metal depos- 



184 GREAT FACTS. 

ited is not so hard as the hammered plates, and will 
not, therefore, bear the wear and tear of copper-plate 
printing so well as the plates made by hand. 

It was at one time supposed that the depositing of 
metal on surfaces, by voltaic action, might be applied 
to the manufacture of numerous kinds of copper 
articles without manual labour. For this purpose, 
casts were made of plaster of Paris, which were 
covered with black lead, to give them the property 
of conducting electricity, and the metal was then de- 
posited upon them. But, independently of the prac- 
tical difBculties attending the operation, it was found 
that the metal was not sufficiently hard, and the cost 
of the requisite voltaic batteries rendered the economy 
of the process questionable 

One of the successful applications of Electro-Metal- 
lurgy is founded on the original application of it by 
Mr. Spencer. As already stated, he covered metal 
plates with wax, and after scratching through the 
coating, and exposing the metal, he submitted the 
plate to voltaic action in a solution of sulphate of 
copper, and thus obtained a representation, in relief, 
of the figures cut through the wax ; but he does not 
seem to have thought of the application of this mode 
of deposition, since adopted, by which engravings in 
relief are obtained, and printed from with the ordi- 
nary letter-press, in the same manner as woodcuts. 
The name given to this new art is " Glyphography," 
and it is used with great advantage when the effect 
of copper-plate engraving is required ; for cross lines, 
which are difficult to cut in wood, can be worked by 



ELECTRO-METALLUEGY. 185 

this method with as great facility as in copper-plate 
etching. 

Another application of Electro-Metallurgy that 
promises to he useful, is the coating of glass and earth- 
enware vessels with copper, so as to enable them to 
be placed over the fire without being cracked. A 
glass sauce-pan might thus be made, which, pro- 
tected by metal covering, would neither break nor 
crack when placed upon the fire, because the metal 
would dift\ise the heat over the whole surface, and 
prevent the unequal expansion of the vessel, which is 
the cause of the cracking of glass and earthenware 
when placed upon the fire. A patent was granted 
last year for a mode of coating earthenware vessels 
with copper or iron by electro-chemical deposition. 
The earthenware is first covered either with copper 
leaf or with bronze powder, to obtain an electrical 
conducting surface on which the copper can be de- 
posited, and the vessel is then placed in a solution of 
sulphate of copper, and put in connection with the 
negative pole of a voltaic battery. 

The electrotype is frequently applied with advan- 
tage to the preservation and multiplication of objects 
of art and natural productions, for even the forms of 
flowers may be in this manner rendered durable ; but 
the most important use that has been made of the 
process is in plating and gilding. To eftect that ob- 
ject, it is necessary to employ a voltaic battery sepa- 
rated from the vessel in w^hich the decomposition 
takes place. The annexed diagram shows an arrange- 
ment of this kind. A single cell of a Daniell's bat- 



186 



GREAT FACTS. 



teiy, a^ is connected by wires from' its positive and 
negative poles, with metal rods placed across the 
decomposition cell, h. The articles to be plated are 




suspended by wires from the metal rod,/*, and a plate 
of silver is attached to the rod, e. Thus, when the 
vessel is filled with the silvering liquid, a voltaic cur- 
rent is established, and the deposition is effected on 
the articles connected with the negative polco 

The menstruum best adapted for electro-plating is 
a solution of silver in cyanide of potassium. During 
the process of deposition, the same quantity of metal 
that is deposited from the liquid on the objects con- 
nected with the negative pole of the battery is re- 
stored to it, by dissolving an equal quantity from 
tlie silver plate connected with the positive pole, and 
in this manner the solution is maintained at the same 
strength. Any thickness of silver may be deposited 
by continuing the process, but about one ounce and a 
half to a square foot of surface is considered a full 
quantity. Those parts on which no silver is required 
to be deposited are covered with varnish or wax, which 
protects them from the voltaic action. 



ELECTRO-METALLURGY. 187 

Where the operation of electro-plating is carried 
on extensively, decomposing tronghs, holding nearly 
300 gallons, are employed, and the silver plates in a 
single trough expose a surface of thirty square feet to 
the dissolviug action of the menstruum under the in- 
fluence of the voltaic battery. 

By the aid of electro-plating the most elaborate 
designs of the artist in metal can be covered with sil- 
ver on every part ; and a group, finely engraved in 
copper, may be made to resemble in every particular 
a work cut out of solid silver. The metal is usually 
deposited in a granulated state, resembling '* frosted *' 
silver, and the parts required to be bright are subse- 
quently burnished ; but by the addition of a few drops 
of the sulphuret of carbon to the solution, the silver 
may be precipitated perfectly bright. 



GAS LIGHTIlsTG. 

The invention of Gas Lighting had its origin in the 
earliest times of history ; not, indeed, as we now see 
it, burning at the end of a pipe supplied with gas 
made artificially, and stored in gas-holders, but blazing 
from fissures in the ground, supplied from natural 
sources in the bowels of the earth. The Greek fire- 
altars are supposed to have been supplied with gas, 
either issuing from bituminous beds, or made artifi- 
cially by the priests, by pouring oil on heated stones 
placed in cavities beneath. Fountains of naphtha, and 
fires issuing from the earth at Ecbatana, in Media, are 
mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Alexander, and 
many other ancient historians record the knowledge 
of similar instances of natural gas lighting. 

In later times, the infiammable gas issuing into the 
galleries of coal mines, and either exploding when 
mixed with atmospheric air, or blazing as it issued 
from fissures in the coal, afforded instances of the 
natural production of gas, the ignition of which too 
frequently proved fatal to those in the mines. 

A remarkable instance of the issue of inflammable 
gas into the shaft of a coal mine at Whitehaven, 
which produced a blaze about 3 feet diameter and 



GAS LIGHTING. 189 

6 feet long, is noticed in the " Philosophical Trans- 
actions" of 1733. The part whence the gas issued 
was vaulted off, and a tube was inserted into the 
cavity and carried to the top of the pit, where it 
escaped in undiminished quantity for years, and 
lighted tlie country for a distance of several miles. 
Many experiments were made with this large issue 
of gas, and it was proposed to conduct it in pipes 
to Whitehaven, to light the streets of that town, but 
the proposition was rejected by the local authorities. 

In China, naturally produced gas is used on a 
large scale, and was so long before the knowledge 
of its application was acquired by Europeans. Beds 
of coal, lying at a great depth, are frequently pierced 
by the borers for salt water, and from these wells the 
inflammable gas springs up. It sometimes appears 
as a jet of fire from 20 to 30 feet high ; and, in the 
neighbourhood of Thsee-Lieon-Teing, the salt works 
were formerly heated and lighted by means of these 
fountains of fire. Bamboo pipes carry the gas from 
the spring to the places where it is intended to be 
consumed. These canes are terminated by tubes of 
pipe-clay, to prevent their being burnt, and other 
bamboo canes conduct the gas intended for lighting 
the streets, and into large apartments and kitchens. 
Thus Nature presents in these positions a complete 
establishment of gas-light works. "^ 

Though the production of illuminating gas from 
natm-al sources had been thus long known, the idea of 

* "Treatise on Coal Gas," by Samuel Clegg, jun. 



190 GREAT FACTS. 

distilling it artificially from coal, for the purpose of 
illumination, did not occur until the end of the last 
century. Dr. Clayton, indeed, nearly arrived at the 
practical application of carburretted hydrogen, in 
1737, for he instituted experiments to prove that coal 
contains gas, nearly similar to that of the " fire 
damp" in coal mines, and that it burns with a bright 
flame. At that time, however, the nature of gases 
was so imperfectly known, that he was unable to do 
more than discover that coal possesses the property 
of giving out, when heated, gas that will burn with 
a bright light. 

In the " Philosophical Transactions" of 1739, Dr. 
Clayton thus describes the effect of the " spirit of 
coal," obtained by destructive distillation in an iron 
retort. "I kept this spirit," he says, '^in bladders 
for a considerable time, and endeavoured several 
ways to condense it, but in vain ; and when I had a 
mind to divert strangers or friends, I have frequently 
taken one of these bladders, and pierced a hole in it 
with a pin, and, compressing gently the bladder near 
the flame of a candle till it once took fire, it would 
then continue flaming till all the spirit was com- 
pressed out of the bladder ; which was the more 
surprising, because no one could discern any 
difference in the appearance between these bladders 
and those which were filled with common air." 

The first known application of coal gas to illumi- 
nation was made, in 1792, by Mr. William Murdoch, 
engineer at the Soho manufactory, to whose great 
ingenuity the world is also indebted for the invention 



GAS LIGHTING. 191 

of the first plan of a steam locomotive engine. * He 
was at that time occupied in superintending the 
fitting up of steam engines for the Cornish mines, 
and his attention having been directed to the proper- 
ties of gas issuing from coal, he instituted a series of 
experiments on carburretted hydrogen, the practical 
result of which was the lighting of his house and 
offices, at Eedruth, with coal gas. The mines at 
which Mr. Murdoch worked being some miles distant 
from his house, he was in the constant practice of 
filling a bladder with coal gas, in the neck of which 
he fixed a metallic tube with a small orifice, through 
which the gas issued. The lighted gas issuing 
through the tube served as a lantern to light his way ; 
and as he thus proceeded along the road with the 
light issuing from the bladder, the country people 
looked upon him as a wizard. 

The gas was generated by Mr. Murdoch in an 
iron retort, and collected in a common gasometer, 
from which it was conducted in pipes to the rooms 
to be lighted. He also, in an early stage of the in- 
vention, contrived a means for making the gas 
portable, by compressing it into strong vessels ; a 
plan which, a few years since, was adopted by the 
Portable Gas Company in London. 

Mr. Murdoch having proved the practicability of 
illumination by gas generated from coal, he continued 
his experiments to facilitate the manufacture of the 
gas on a large scale, and for its more perfect purifica- 

* See article, " Steam Carriages,'' page 35. 



192 GREAT FACTS. 

tion. The first public display of its illuminating 
power was made at the rejoicings for the peace of 
Amiens, in 1802, on which occasion part of the work- 
shops of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, at Soho, was 
brilliantly illuminated with coal gas by Mr. Murdoch. 
In 1805, Messrs. Phillips and Lee, of Manchester, 
had their extensive cotton mill fitted up with gas 
apparatus, under the superintendence of Mr. Mur- 
doch, and the quantity of light given out by the 
burners in all parts of the cotton mill was equal 
to that of 3,000 candles. ^ 

Notwithstanding these eminently successful trials 
of gas lighting, the prejudice against innovation 
prevented, for several years, the extensive adoption 
of the plan. As every establishment using gas had 
to make it, and as the apparatus was costly and im- 
perfectly managed, the expense in the first instance, 
the trouble, and the noxious smell, presented great 
obstacles to the introduction of that mode of illumina- 
tion. The popular notion, also, that streams of fiame 
were rushing along the pipes produced an impression 
that gas lighting must be very dangerous, which 
it required time to disprove. It was not, therefore, 
till several j^ears after the advantages and economy 
of gas had been practically established, that a public 

*It is stated in Mr. Clegg's " Treatise on Coal Gas," that Mr. Clegg, 
sen., lighted the cotton mill of Mr. Henry Lodge, at Sowerby Bridge, 
near Halifax, a fortnight before the mill of Messrs. Phillips and Lee 
was so lighted. A friendly spirit of emulation is said to have existed 
between Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Clegg in lighting those two mills with 
gas, each one endeavouring to complete the work before the other. 



GAS LIGHTING. 193 

company was formed for laying down pipes to light 
the streets, and to convey the gas into houses for 
lighting shops. 

The person to whom the world is chiefly indebted 
for the practical application of gas lighting is Mr. 
Winsor, who had been a merchant in London. Being 
very sanguine as to the advantages to be derived from 
gas lighting, and possessing an ardent temperament 
which no opposition could quench, he undertook to 
introduce it to public notice, and to form a company 
for lighting the whole of England with gas. He hired 
the old Lyceum Theatre, which he lighted with coal 
gas, and he there delivered lectures and exhibited ex- 
periments to show the benefits that would arise from 
the universal use of gas light, and coke fuel. He pub- 
lished an extravagant prospectus of a company to be 
formed, with the following title : — -" A National Light 
and Heat Company, for providing our streets and 
houses with light and heat, on similar principles as 
they are now (1816) supplied with water. Demon- 
strated by the patentee at No. 97, Pall Mall, where 
it is proved, by positive experiments and decisive cal- 
culation, that the destruction of smoke would open 
unto the empire of Great Britain new and unparal- 
leled sources of inexhaustible wealth at this most por- 
tentous crisis of Europe. The serious perusal of this 
publication, and an attentive observation of the de- 
cisive experiments, will carry conviction to every 
mind." 

In this prospectus Mr. Winsor attempted to make 
it appear that by adopting his plan there would be 
9 



194 GEE AT FACTS. 

" a grand balance of profit for the whole realm of 
£1155000,0005" and each shareholder of the company 
was promised, " at the lowest calculation, £570 for 
every £5 deposit." He entertained the notion of 
making the nse of gas and coke compulsory, by levy- 
ing a tax on all who obstinately refused to adopt what 
would be so much to their own advantage. This tax, 
he said, " cannot be oppressive in the least, because 
it falls on the obstinate only, who shall resist the use 
of a far superior, cheaper, and safer fuel." 'Sot con- 
tent with the language of prose, Mr. Winsor vented 
his thoughts and feelings in numerous poetical efiu- 
sions. The flights of his Muse, however, were not 
into the regions of sublimity, as may be perceived by 
the following specimen : — 

" Must Britons be condemned for ever to wallow 

In filthy soot, noxious smoke, train oil, and tallow, 

And their poisonous fumes for ever to swallow ? 

For with sparky soot, snuffs and vapours, men have constant strife, — 

Those who are not burned to death are smothered during life." 

Mr. Winsor's absurd statements — in the truth of 
which he potently believed — and the wild, random 
manner of making them known, excited much ridi- 
cule and opposition. Among his opponents was Mr. 
Nicholson, the editor of the Chemical JReview, who 
not only challenged Mr. "Winsor's estimates, but the 
validity of his patent, on the ground that Mr. Mur- 
doch was the original inventor. Mr. "Winsor's plans 
and calculations were burlesqued in a cleverly writ- 
ten " Heroic Poem," published in a quarto volume, 



GAS LIGHTING. 195 

which, whilst professing to extol the virtues of gas 
and coke, quizzed its hero most unmercifully. The 
poem concluded with this address : — 

"And when, ah, Wmsor ! — distant be the day ! — 
Life's flame no longer shall ignite thy clay. 
Thy phosphur nature, active still, and bright, 
Above us shall diffuse post obit light. 
Perhaps, translated to another sphere. 
Thy spirit — like thy light, refined and clear — 
Ballooned with purest hydrogen, shall rise. 
And add a patent planet to the skies. 
Then some sage Sidrophel, with Herschel eye, 
The bright Winsorium Sidus shall descry ; 
The Vox Stdlarum shall record thy name, 
And thine outlive another Winsor's fame." 

" Though we may smile at Mr. Winsor's extrava- 
gant plans and calculations," observes the Journal of 
Gas Lighting^ " we cannot but admire the enthusiasm 
with which he pursued his object, and ultimately suc- 
ceeded in establishing the first gas company. The 
lighting of Pall Mall with gas, in the spring of 1807, 
gave increased stimulus to the project, and applica- 
tion was made to Parliament to carry it into effect. 
The bill was opposed by Mr. Murdoch and thrown 
out; but in the following year (1810) the application 
was successfully renewed. The scheme, however, as 
sanctioned by Parliament, was sadly shorn of its mag- 
nificent proportions ; and, instead of a ' Grand Na- 
tional Light and Heat Company, for Lighting and 
Heating the "Whole Kingdom,' its operations were 
limited to London, Westminster, and Southwark ; nor 



196 GREAT FACTS. 

were any special taxes imposed on those who should 
obstinately refuse to use the light and burn the coke. 
The Chartered Gas Company, established* by Mr. 
Winsor's persevering efforts, has served as the guid- 
ing star to all other gas companies in the world." 

The illuminating property of coal gas depends on 
the quantity of carbon it contains. Pure hydrogen 
gas burns with a pale blue flame that gives scarcely 
any light, though it possesses intense heating power. 
If, however, minute particles of a solid' body — pow- 
dered charcoal, for instance — be thrown into the flame, 
they become white-hot, and the incandescence of those 
solid particles produces a brilliant light. The same 
effect is caused by the combustion of the carburretted 
hydrogen gas, and in a more perfect manner. That 
gas contains a large portion of carbon in a state of 
vapour, and when a light is applied to a jet of the 
gas the hydrogen immediately inflames, the carbon 
is deposited in the flame, and the minute particles 
into which it is disseminated become highly heated 
and ignite. 

There are two distinct states of carbonization in 
illuminating gas. The commoner kind — the ordinary 
coal gas— consists of two measures of hydrogen mixed 
with one measure of carbon vapour. The specific 
gravity of such gas is about one-half that of atmos- 
pheric air, and it is eight times heavier than pure 
hydrogen."^ The best kind of gas for illumination is 

* The facility with which a supply of carburretted hydrogen gas 
can be obtained from gas works, induces aeronauts to fill their bal- 
loons with it rather than be at the trouble and expense of making 
hydrogen for the purpose ; but the ascending power of the balloon 
is thereby greatly diminished. 



GAS LIGHTING. 197 

obtained from the distillation of oil. It is called ole- 
fiant gas, and contains equal measures of hj^drogen 
gas and carbon vapour ; its specific gravity is 0.985, 
being about fifteen times heavier than pure hydro- 
gen. 

The rationale of the process of making coal gas 
consists in expelling the volatile matters from the 
coal by heat, in closed vessels or retorts, and then 
separating the gas and purifying it on its passage 
from the retort to the gas-holder, where it is stored 
for use. 

The retorts are usually made of cast iron, and are 
about 7 feet long, 14 inches in depth, and the same 
in width ; the shape being that of an arch. The re- 
torts will hold two hundredweight of coal each, but 
they are never filled, because during the process of 
distillation the carbonaceous part of the coal expands, 
and occupies more space than the original quantity, 
the proportion of expansion being as one and a quar- 
ter to one. There is a large aperture for the admis- 
sion of coal and the extraction of coke, which aper- 
ture is covered with a lid, and screwed to make it 
air-tight. A tube is inserted into the mouth of the 
retort, to carry oflf the products of the distillation. 
That tube rises about twelve feet, and then dips into 
a large horizontal pipe, one foot in diameter, called 
the hydraulic main, in which are collected the tar 
and ammoniacal liquor that distil from the coal. Ten 
or fourteen retorts are usually set back to back in 
brickwork, to be heated by one fire ; but the plan 
has been recently introduced of employing long clay 



198 GKEAT FACTS. 

retorts, which are charged at both ends. These are 
found to possess considerable advantage over iron, 
not only from their lower price, but from the facility 
with which the carbonaceous deposit is removed, 
and the full charges worked off. Coke is generally 
burned in the furnaces, and the heat is continually 
maintained so as to keep the retorts red-hot. 

As atmospheric air cannot gain access to the coal 
in the retorts, the gases expelled do not inflame, nor 
can the parts that are not volatile be consumed with- 
out a supply of air. It is entirely a process of distil- 
lation, in which all the products can be collected. 
The volatile parts are carried off by the pipe, and the 
solid carbonaceous matter, or coke, is left in the re- 
tort. 

The first effect of heat on coal, after it is put into 
the retort, is to expel the moisture, which, in combi- 
nation with the air, issues in the form of steam. Tar 
then distils, with some portions of gas, consisting of 
hydrogen and ammonia. "When the retort has at- 
tained a bright cherry-red heat, the disengagement 
of the carburretted hydrogen is most active ; and it is 
found that the more quickly the coal is heated, the 
greater is the quantity of illuminating gas generat- 
ed. 

The production of coal gas, and the development 
of its properties at different stages of distillation, may 
be readily shown by means of a common tobacco 
pipe. Fill the bowl of the pipe with small pieces of 
coal, cover it over with a lump of clay, and then put 
H into a hot fire, with the stalk of the pipe projecting 



GAS LIGHTING. 199 

through the bars. Presently steam will be seen to 
issue from the pipe, and afterwards smoke, and, if a 
light be applied, a jet of flame will issue forth, the 
brilliancy of which will increase as the bowl of the 
pipe becomes more heated, until the best part of the 
gas has been distilled from the coal. 

The gas is mingled with various volatile products 
as it issues from the retort, and requires to be purified 
before it is fitted for illumination. The most abundant 
matter that passes over with it is tar. The vapour of 
that substance, however, condenses when cooled, and 
it may thus be separated from the gas very effectually. 
For that purpose the gas, after having deposited a 
large portion of the tar in the hydraulic main, is made 
to traverse through a number of vertical pipes, and in 
passing through them a further quantity of tar, ac- 
companied by ammoniacal liquor, is deposited, and col- 
lected in a reservoir at the bottom. The next process 
is the purification of the gas from carbonic acid and 
sulphuretted hydrogen. This is commonly done by 
passing it through water and lime ; the combination 
of the carbonic acid with the lime being facilitated by 
agitation. The method of purifying by lime was in- 
troduced by Mr. Clegg ; and by a later process, oxide 
of iron is used to absorb the sulphuretted hydrogen. 
The gas, when purified, is conveyed to the gas-holder, 
whence it is forced by pressure into the mains and 
pipes. 

An apparatus for generating coal gas on a small 
scale for private establishments, remote from sources 
of ordinary supply, is represented in the accompany- 



200 



GREAT FACTS. 



ing woodcut. The retort. A, is fitted in a small fur- 
nace. The coal is put in at F, and the products of 
distillation pass through the bent pipe, E. The more 
liquid portions of the tar pass at once through the 
tube, B, into the receiver, G ; and as the gas passes 
along the bent tube, C, it becomes cooled, and a fur- 
ther deposit of tar and ammoniacal liquor is made. 




The gas is then conveyed along another tube into the 
purifier, H, filled with lime and water, and it thence 



GAS LIGHTING. 201 

passes into the gas-holder. Tubes are inserted into 
the latter for conveying the gas to the burners. 

The quantity and the quality of the gas yielded by 
coal differ materially according to the kind employed. 
One ton of good Newcastle coal will yield 9,500 cubic 
feet of gas, w^hich, when burnt in the best manner, 
gives a light equal to that of 422 lbs. of spermaceti 
candles. One ton of Wigan cannel coal yields 10,000 
cubic feet, and gives a light equal to T47 lbs. of sper- 
maceti candles.^ The price, in London, of good gas 
from Newcastle coal, is 4s. 6d. per thousand cubic 
feet, which gives a light equal to 74^ lbs. of sperma- 
ceti, and equal to 89 lbs. of mould candles ; therefore, 
when the latter are 8d. a pound, the burning of gas is 
twelve times more economical than the burning of 
candles. In Liverpool, gas from cannel coal is sup- 
plied at the low price of 3s. 9d. per thousand feet ; 
and that gas gives at least one-third more light than 
the ordinary London gas. 

The cleanliness of gas, as compared with candles 
or oil, is a further recommendation ; and for the pur- 
pose of lighting streets, shops, factories, public build- 
ings, and halls, it presents important advantages ; but 
it is not well adapted for small sitting rooms, because 
the heat of the flame makes it unpleasant and inju- 
rious to the eyes when near, and, unless very pure, it 
deteriorates the air of closed apartments. In many 
parts of the country, however, where coals are cheap, 
and the price of gas is consequently less than in Lon- 

* Journal of Gas Lighting^ vol. ii. 



202 GREAT FACTS. 

don, it is introduced into every room of nearly all 
private houses. 

The best kind of gas made from mineral substances 
is produced by the distillation of a bituminous shale, 
called Boghead coal, which was discovered a few 
years since in Scotland. One ton of this material 
yields 15,000 cubic feet of gas, which is equal in illu- 
minating power to 1,930 lbs. of sperm candles. Bog- 
head coal is now commonly used for mixing its gas 
with that of inferior quality, to bring up the illumi- 
nating power to the required standard. 

defiant gas, made from oil, burns with a brighter 
and purer light than common coal gas, but it is more 
costly. It is made nearly in the same manner, by 
distillation in retorts ; the principal difference con- 
sisting in the degree and regulation of the tempera- 
ture. A dull red heat is the best, and in order to 
keep the oil exposed to the action of an invariable 
heat, it is admitted gradually into the retorts, into 
which pieces of brick or coke are inserted to increase 
the heating surface. One pound of common oil yields 
about 15 feet of olefiant gas. The same kind of gas 
may also be obtained in smaller quantities by the 
distillation of tar, rosin, or pitch. Twelve cubic feet 
of gas may be obtained from one pound of tar, and 
ten from the same weight of rosin. 

The brilliancy of gas-light depends, in some mea- 
sure, on the kind of burner employed. To obtain a 
steady light, an argand burner is usually adopted : 
the gas being allowed to escape through a number of 
minute holes pierced in a hollow ring of metal, which 



GAS LIGHTING. 203 

admits a current of air througli the middle. To in- 
crease the supply of air, the burner is covered with a 
glass chimney, which, if not too long, adds to the 
brilliancy of the flame ; but a verj long chimney pro- 
duces so strong a current of air, as to cool the flame, 
and diminish the light. A plan is sometimes adopted 
of placing a small metal disc a short distance above 
the jets, so as to spread the flame. By this means the 
brightness is increased, by exposing the flame more 
directly to the current of air ; and the metal disc, by 
becoming heated, also tends to aid the combustion of 
the carbon. 

One of the problems to be solved on the original 
formation of gas works was the size of pipes, and 
the amount of pressure required to force the gas to 
the various burners. It was at first supposed that 
the friction against the pipes would oppose so much, 
resistance to the passage of the gas, that it could not 
be transmitted to great distances. It was found, 
however, that the perpendicular pressure of a few 
inches of water was quite sufficient to force the gas 
through the mains and small pipes of an extensive 
range of streets. A bold attempt was made at Bir- 
mingham, in 1826, to bring gas from the collieries, 
at a distance of ten miles from the town. The plan 
was laughed at by many as impracticable, but it was 
attended with complete success. The gas being 
made near the mouth of the coal-pit, the cost of con- 
veyance was saved by the additional outlay in the 
first instance. It must be observed, however, that 
it is extremely difficult in practice to avoid the es- 



204 GREAT FACTS. 

cape of gas at the junctions of the pipes ; and by- 
increasing the length of the gas mains, the greater 
will be the leakage. The loss from this cause, in 
some gas works, exceeds 20 per cent, of the gas 
manufactured. 

The volume of gas discharged from a pipe is di- 
rectly proportional to the square of its diameter, and 
inversely as the square of its length. Thus, if a pipe 
required to discharge 250 cubic feet of gas in an 
hour, at a distance of 200 feet, must have an internal 
diameter of 1 inch ; to discharge 2,000 feet in an 
hour, at a distance of 1,000 feet, would require a 
diameter of 4*47 inches. The same quantity dis- 
charged at double the distance would require a pipe 
5*32 inches in diameter ; at a distance of 4,000 feet 
the diameter must be increased to 6*13 inches; and 
at a distance of 6,000 feet the diameter should be 7 
iuches. 

On the first introduction of gas-light, the com- 
panies who supj^lied it charged a fixed sum for each 
burner of a given size. This mode of charging was, 
however, very unsatisfactory, for the size of the 
burner is a very uncertain indication of the quantity 
of gas consumed. Persons using gas desired to pay 
for the quantity they actually burned ; and to enable 
them to do this, a special contrivance was invented 
by Mr. Clegg, the engineer of the Chartered Gas 
Company, called a gas-meter. That instrument 
measures, with suflicient accuracy for practical pur- 
poses, the volume of gas that passes through it to the 
burners, and thus each consumer of gas now pays only 
for the number of cubic feet consumed. 



GAS LIGHTING. 



205 



The accompanying diagrams represent sections of 
a gas meter, as seen in front and edgewise. The outer 
case of the instrument, which is a flat cylinder made 
of sheet iron, is indicated by the letters c^ c. Inside 
it there revolves another cylinder, made also of thin 
sheet iron, and divided into four compartments, 
marked d^ d^ d^ d. This interior cylinder readily re- 
volves on an axis, ^, ^, shown in the section of the 
instrument as seen edgewise. The gas enters from 
the street pipe through the opening, a^ and it is 
forced out to the burners through the pipe, 5, the 
latter being seen in the narrow section only. In that 




diagram, also, there is shown a cog-wheel. A, fixed on 
to the axis, and a small outer case, in which that 
wheel rotates. Water is poured into that external 
case until the gas-meter is rather more than half 
filled, the level of the water being shown at i. 

The action of the instrument will be readily un- 



206 GREAT FACTS. 

derstood by examing the two sections. The gas, on 
entering the tube, a, presses against the npper sur- 
face of the compartment that liappens to be then 
above it, and tends to tarn the inner cylinder round. 
This pressure forces the gas through the opening, J, 
to the burner ; and as the compartment then in com- 
munication with that opening is emptied of the gas 
it contains, in the direction of the arrow, it is 
gradually forced under the level of the water, and 
the other compartment, which has in the meantime 
been filling with gas, continues the supply. Thus, 
supposing each division of the inner revolving cylin- 
der to hold 108 cubic inches, a complete revolution 
would indicate that the fourth part of a cubic foot 
had passed through the pipe, ?>, to the burners. 
Several cog-wheels, arranged like clock-work 
mechanism, are connected with the wheel, ^, and 
by this means the number of cubic feet of gas con- 
sumed is indicated by hands fixed to the wheels, 
and pointing to the corresponding figures on a series 
of dials. 

Some inconvenience and irregularity having been 
experienced in the use of the wet meter, the correct- 
ness of which, it is evident, may be affected by varia- 
tions in the height of the water level, dry meters 
have been constructed for measuring gas, by causing 
it to pass through a small expanding chamber, similar 
in principle to a pair of bellows. The objection to 
these instruments is that the leather, or other flexible 
substance that forms the sides of the expanding 
chambers, becomes rigid by use, and the valves are 



GAS LIGHTING. 207 

liable to get out of order ; but in the last improve- 
ment of the instrument, by Mr. Croll, these objections 
are stated to be effectually removed. 

Numerous attempts have been made to produce 
illuminating gas from other substances than coal, but 
without advantage. The plan that promised the 
most success was the production of hydrogen gas by 
the decomposition of water, which was passed over 
heated coke in retorts, and by that means the oxygen 
of the water, combined with the incandescent coke 
and the hydrogen, was set free. The gas thus col- 
lected possessed little illuminating power, but it was 
afterwards mixed with the rich gas from cannel coal, 
and raised to the requisite illuminating standard. It 
was found, however, in practice, that the compound 
gas thus formed was more costly than ordinary coal 
gas, and the plan has been discontinued. Another 
method of giving illuminating power to water gas 
was to surround the flame with platinum gauze, 
which was rendered incandescent by the heat, and 
became highly luminous. But it required twice 
the quantity of gas burned in this manner to produce 
a light equal to that of carburretted hydrogen, and 
the combustion of so much hydrogen gas produced an 
amount of vapour and heat that were very unpleasant. 
That mode of gas illumination, called the " Gillard 
light," from the name of the inventor, was also found 
more costly than the ordinary mode of lighting with 
coal gas, which has now no rival to compete with it 
in economical illumination. 

JSTo Act of Parliament is now required, as 



208 GEEAT FACTS. 

originally proposed by Mr. Winsor, to enforce the 
burning of coal gas. Its advantages, in point of 
economy, cleanliness, and even of safety, are suffi- 
ciently understood to spread the use of coal gas to 
every part of the kingdom. In the metropolis alone 
there are twelve gas companies, who receive for the 
sale of gas an average of £100,000 per annum each, 
thus making the sum paid for gas lighting in London 
£1,200,000, and it has been estimated as high as 
£2,000,000. Taking the average price to be 4:S. 6d. 
per thousand cubic feet, the quantity of gas consumed 
amounts to 5,300,000,000 cubic feet ; and if we add 
to that quantity 20 per cent, for leakage through the 
mains and pipes, the quantity of gas manufactured 
in the metropolitian gas works is upwards of 6,000,- 
000,000 cubic feet in a year. It may, perhaps, give 
a clearer notion of this immense quantity to say, that 
a gas-holder, capable of containing it, would require 
to be one mile in diameter, and the height of St. 
Paul's Cathedral. The light produced by burning 
such a volume of gas would be equal to that of 
150,000 tons of mould candles, which would cost 
£13,000,000. The quantity of coals requisite for the 
production of the gas manufactured annually in Lon- 
don is upwards of 600,000 tons. 



THE ELECTEIC LIGHT. 

The Electric Light is the brightest meteor that 
has jlashed across the horizon of promise during the 
present century. When first exhibited as a means 
of illumination, about twelve years ago, the splendour 
of the rays emitted, and the delusive representations 
of tlie small cost required to produce such a brilliant 
light, led the public to believe that the career of gas- 
lighting was drawing to a close, and that night would 
be turned into day by this wonderful demonstration 
of electrical power. The light produced by charcoal 
points, subjected to the action of a powerful voltaic 
battery, was, however, no novelty at that time ; for 
as far back as 1810, Sir Humphry Davy was accus- 
tomed to exhibit that development of electrical force 
at the Eoyal Institution, and it formed a standard 
experiment in most chemical lectures. But it seems 
not to have been thought applicable in those days 
to the purposes of illumination ; and when Mr. Staite 
brought it into notice, and exhibited its efi*ects on 
the tops of some public buildings, it was considered 
one of the most wonderful inventions of the age. 

Mr. Staite's patent, taken out in 1847, though 
commonly supposed to be for the Electric Light 



210 GKEAT FACTS. 

generally, was limited in its clauses to the construc- 
tion of a voltaic battery and apparatus, adapted for 
maintainiug constancy, and for giving steadiness to 
the light. The merely temporary continuance of 
the voltaic arc^ as it was formerly called, seemed in- 
deed to preclude the possibility of its adoption as a 
means of illumination ; it was therefore a great point 
gained to give stability and constancy to the light. 
The difficulty of accomplishing this will be perceived 
when it is known that the charcoal points, between 
which the action takes place, are constantly under- 
going change, the particles of carbon being trans- 
ferred from one to the other. There is no actual 
combustion of the charcoal, in the ordinary meaning 
of the term ; the action is principally confined to the 
transfer of the charcoal connected with the positive 
pole, to that connected with the negative pole of the 
voltaic battery, a hollow being formed in one, and a 
pyramidical accumulation of particles in the other. 
This action was beautifully shown by Professor Fara- 
day at the Royal Institution last year, by projecting 
the image of the charcoal points on to a screen, by 
means of the Electric Light itself. The image, mag- 
nified by the lenses of the electric lamp, could thus 
be distinctly seen without being too brilliant to dazzle 
the eyes. The particles of carbon, heated to white- 
ness, were perceived to be in active motion, and the 
piling up of the pyramid in one, and the hollow 
produced in the other, were continually varjang the 
distances between them, and thus tending to cause 
unsteadiness in the light. 



THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 211 

Numerous contrivances have been adopted for the 
purpose of keeping the points at exactly the same dis- 
tance, as the want of stability was supposed to be the 
only obstacle to the adopton of the Electric Light. 
These contrivances have so far succeeded, that a 
tolerably steady light can be maintained for some 
time, but under the most careful management the 
points occasionally approach too near or are too far 
apart to maintain an equable light. 

Among other inventions to increase the steadiness 
of the light is one that was patented in 1856, by Mr. 
Way, in which mercury is substituted for charcoal, 
but the steadiness of light to be thus acquired must 
be attained with a great loss of illuminating power, 
and the vapour arising from the combustion of the 
mercury would be extremely injurious to health. 

Mr. Hearder, of Plymouth, has produced more 
brilliant effects with the Electric Light than any other 
person. Some remarkable exhibitions of the power 
of the light were made by him, in April, 1849, from 
the top of the Devonport Column, and several sci- 
entific gentlemen undertook to make observations at 
different localities to a distance of five miles. At 
Tremeton Castle, on the banks of the Tamar, a dis- 
tance of nearly S^ miles; the light cast a strong 
shadow, and writing could be distinctly read by it. 
The space illuminated was at least three quarters of 
a mile broad. To aid the effect, a reflector was em- 
ployed, and when the rays were directed to the 
clouds, they had the appearance of a huge comet, 
the reflector being the nucleus. The intensity of the 



212 GREAT FACTS. 

light was ascertained to be equal to that of 301,400 
mould candles of six to the pound, whilst the light of 
the Breakwater Lighthouse was equal to only 150 
candles. At a distance of five miles the light was 
sufficiently powerful to enable persons to read a 
book. 

The battery employed by Mr. Hearder in these 
brilliant experiments consisted of 80 cells of a May- 
nooth battery, 4 inches square, and the carbon cylin- 
ders between which the light appeared were formed 
of powdered coke, mixed with tar, and rammed into 
a tube three quarters of an inch in diameter. "When 
these cylinders are about a quarter of an inch apart, 
the Electric Light appears at the end of each for the 
space of more than half an inch. The light, during 
the experiments at Plymouth, was maintained for 
three hours, and the materials employed amounted 
to one pound and a-half of zinc, 114 fluid ounces of 
sulphuric acid, the same quantity of nitric acid, and 
six pounds of muriate of ammonia. ^ 

The most serious practical objection to the intro- 

* Mr. Hearder, of Plymouth, affords a remarkable instance of the 
successful pursuit of science under difficulties. He lost his sight in 
his youth by an accidental explosion during some chemical experi- 
ments, but instead of being disheartened by that calamity, he has 
continued to pursue his investigations with unabated vigour, and has 
succeeded in throwing much light on many of the recondite proper- 
ties of electricity, by admirably contrived experiments, which were 
conducted with unremitting perseverance at great expense. He has 
been in the habit of delivering lectures at the Plymouth Institution, 
and other Institutions in Devon and Cornwall ; and those who witness 
the skilful manipulation of his experiments can scarcely suppose that 
he is blind. 



THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 213 

duction of the Electric Light, as a means of general 
illumination, is its expense. When the project was 
first brought into notice, attempts were made to show 
that the battery power required might be obtained at 
little cost, and in this respect some deceptions were 
practised not creditable to the parties engaged in 
promoting the scheme. It has been proved by Mr. 
Grove that the cost of ordinary batteries necessary 
to maintain the light in full brilliancy would greatly 
exceed the price of an equal light from gas. 

A plan was patented for generating the required 
voltaic power, free from cost, by applying the residual 
sulphate of zinc as paint, and an Electric Power and 
Light Company was formed to carry out the project. 
But the plan failed, and the affairs of the company 
have recently been '^ wound up." 

Until some cheaper mode of generating electricity 
than is at present known be invented, there is no hope 
of the Electric Light becoming generally available, 
but there are special circumstances in which it may 
be applied with advantage. It is peculiarly appli- 
cable for lighthouses, as its rays would penetrate 
through a foggy atmosphere that would obscure the 
light of ordinary flames, and in such cases the extra 
cost should not operate as an obstacle to its use. 



mSTA]NT^A:NT:OUS LIGHTS. 

Those who are not old enough to remember the 
time when flint-and-steel were the implements em- 
ployed to obtain a light, can have no sufficient ap- 
preciation of the great convenience of " Lncifer" 
matches. In those ''good old times," it was a regular 
household care to provide a sufficiency of tinder, to 
see that it was kept dry, and that there was a proper 
flint " with fire in it." The striking of a light, when 
the tinder-box was adequately supplied, was no mean 
accomplishment; and the unskilful hand, operating 
in the dark, would either get no sparks at all, or 
send them in a wrong direction, and not unfrequently 
strike the skin off the knuckles, in the vain endeavour 
to set light to the tinder. Or if the tinder were 
damp, the sparks would fall upon it without igniting, 
and minutes would be spent in holding a pointed 
brimstone match to the delusive spark, and blowing 
at it without effect. Sometimes the incautious opera- 
tor, tired with his fruitless efforts, would sprinkle 
gunpowder over the tinder, to make it take fire more 
readily, and whilst puffing at a long-desired spark, 
the gunpowder would explode in his face and nearly 



INSTANTANEOUS LIGHTS. 215 

blind hira. Such were some of the annoyances, at- 
tended by loss of time, that were experienced in ob- 
taining the same result that is now produced instan- 
taneously, and much more effectively, by merely 
rubbing the match against any rough surface. 

Several attempts had, indeed, been made many 
^ears ago to supplant the flint-and-steel and tinder- 
box, and some of the plans adopted so closely ap- 
proach the matches now in use, that we wonder the 
inventors did not succeed long since in contriving the 
very facile means of striking a light that we now 
enjoy. Phosphorus and brimstone matches were 
first employed for the purpose. The phosphorus was 
contained in a bottle placed within a tin case, which 
also held the pointed brimstone matches and a piece 
of cork. The match was dipped into the phosphorus 
bottle, and then rubbed on the cork ; and the friction 
excited sufficient heat to inflame the small quantity 
of phosphorus adhering to the match and, to set fire 
to the sulphur. These phosphorus boxes answered 
the purpose very well, but the apprehended danger 
of using so inflammable a substance prevented their 
coming into general use ; and they were much more 
costly than a tinder-box. 

In the next advance, if it may be so called, in 
the invention of instantaneous light-producers, phos- 
phorus was altogether discarded, and a mixture of 
chlorate of potass, then called oxymuriate of potass, 
and sugar was employed. Those substances, when 
combined, inflame explosively in contact with sul- 
phuric acid. In applying them for the purpose of 



216 GREAT FACTS, 

obtaining instantaneous light, they were mixed to- 
gether in an adhesive menstruum, into which the ends 
of small rectangular matches were dipped. These 
matches very nearly resembled the " Lucifers" of the 
present day. To ignite them, a small bottle contain- 
ing sulphuric acid and asbestos was provided, and 
they were arranged together in an ornamental taper- 
stand for the chimney-piece. This apparatus was not 
received with much favour, partly on account of in- 
jury done by a careless use of the sulphuric acid, 
partly because it failed to act when the acid had 
absorbed moisture from the atmosphere, but prin- 
cipally because of its cost. 

To obviate the objection arising from the use of 
sulphuric acid in open bottles, an ingenious contri- 
vance was adopted, by which each match contained 
its own reservoir of acid sufficient for igniting the 
inflammable compound. Small glass globules, con- 
taining sulphuric acid, were introduced into the com- 
position of chlorate of potass and sugar, which, when 
broken, set fire to the mixture and lighted the match. 
These instantaneous lights, which were called Prome- 
theans^ were more ingenious than useful, because the 
trouble of manufacture rendered them expensive, and 
the sulphuric acid was more likely to injure furniture 
in that form than when a bottle with asbestos was 
used. The Promotheans, however, possessed the 
advantage of portability, and for occasional purposes 
they were convenient. In some of the forms in 
which the Prometheans were manufactured, the glass 
globule of acid, surrounded by its inflammable com- 



INSTANTANEOUS LIGHTS. 217 

pound, was attached to the end of a small stick of 
sealing- wax, sufficiently large to seal a letter ; bnt 
this refinement in instantaneous lights was not much 
patronized. 

Notwithstanding these ingenious attempts to pro- 
duce light by chemical action, the flint-and-steel re- 
tained possession of the field until a match was made 
that ignited by friction alone. The first kind of fric- 
tion match was invented in 1832. It consisted of a 
thin splinter of dried wood, the top of which was dip- 
ped in a mixture of one part of chlorate of potass, 
two of sulphide of antimony, and one of gum. To 
ignite the match it was necessary to draw it briskly 
through sand-paper. These matches required some 
address to light them, because much more friction 
was required than is sufficient to light Lucifers. 

The next improvement was the " Congreve " 
match, in which recourse was had to the materials 
previously used, separately, for obtaining instanta- 
neous lights. Congreve matches were composed of 
an emulsion of phosphorus mixed with chlorate of 
potass, into which the matches, previously tipped 
with sulphur, were dipped. These matches were of 
the same size and form as the Lucifers now in general 
use, and they ignited readily by friction on sand- 
paper or other rough surface. Their explosive noise 
on inflammation, which gave them their name, was 
the only apparent difi;erence between Congreves and 
Lucifers, and their introduction completely sup- 
planted the flint-and-steel. 

The noiseless match, or Lucifer, has, in its turn, 
10 



218 GREAT FACTS. 

driven tlie Congreve almost out of use, though for 
practical purposes the latter was as effective, and it 
was less dangerous. The Lucifer matches depend 
altogether on phosphorus for their inflammability. 
Their composition is an emulsion of phosphorus with 
glue, nitre, and some colouring matters. The sulphur 
matches, after having been tipped with that compo- 
sition, are exposed in a warm room until a sufl&cient 
quantity of the phosphorus is evaporated by slow 
combustion, to leave a film of glue on the surface to 
protect the remainder from the action of the atmos* 
phere. The usual proportions for the compound are, 
phosphorus four parts, nitre ten, glue six, red ochre 
five, and smalt two. The principle on which the 
action of Lucifer matches depends, is the strong affin- 
ity of phosphorus for oxygen, of which the nitre with 
which it is mixed contains an abundant supply ; and 
by drawing the match across sand-paper, sufficient 
heat is excited by the friction to ignite the phospho- 
rus, and the nitre supplies the oxygen to maintain 
rapid combustion. 

The manufacture of Lucifer matches is conducted 
on a very large scale in this country and on the Con- 
tinent. It requires several ship loads of wood to sup- 
ply the requirements of Lucifer-match makers ; and 
ingenious contrivances have been patented for cutting 
it up into splints of the proper size. For that pur- 
pose, after the wood has been reduced to the required 
lengths by circular saws, it is cut up into splints by a 
number of lancet points, separated from each other 
as far apart as the thickness of a match, whicli pass 



INSTANTANEOUS LIGHTS. 219 

over the wood and divide it with, great rapidity. The 
splints are collected into bundles of one thousand, 
and each end having been dipped into melted sul- 
phur, they are divided in the middle by a circular 
saw. 

The Reports of the Juries of the Great Exhibition 
supply a variety of statistical details respecting the 
manufacture of chemical matches, from which it 
appears that the quantity made in Austria, in 1849, 
amounted to 50,000 cwt. ; and that in France, in 1850, 
the phosphorus consumed in the manufacture of 
matches, amounted yearly to 590 cwt. ; and the con- 
sumption has rapidly increased since that time. In 
this country, it is calculated that eight tons of phos- 
phorus are yearly used in making matches, the num- 
ber of which is stated to be 40,000,000 a day. Large 
quantities are also imported from Germany, where 
they are manufactured so cheaply, that fifty boxes 
each containing 100 matches, are sold for fourpence. 

The latest improvement in chemical matches is 
the " Yesta," which consists of small wax, or stearine 
tapers, with an igniting composition at the end, con- 
sisting of chlorate of potass and phosphorus. These 
Instantaneous Lights are made without sulphur, con- 
sequently the disagreeable smell of the common 
Lucifer is avoided. The convenience of smokers has 
also been consulted in the manufacture of Instanta- 
neous Lights. The fusees, now so frequently used 
for lighting cigars, are composed of thin card-board 
cut half through, steeped in nitre and with a small 
quantity of phosphorus ; and the tearing of the paper 



220 GEEAT FACTS. 

across produces sufficient heat to ignite tlie inflam- 
mable card. 

Thousands of persons, principally children, are 
now employed in the manufacture of chemical 
matches. The occupation, as at present conducted, 
is very unhealthy, for the fumes of the phosphorus 
produce a disease of a remarkable kind in the jaw- 
bone, which often proves fatal. ITo cure has yet 
been found for this peculiar disease, occasioned by 
the phosphorus in the state in which it is commonly 
used. A preparation of that substance has, however, 
been made which may be used without injury, and 
which possesses the advantage also of being less dan- 
gerously inflammable; but as the red amorphous 
pJiosphoTus^ as it is called, is rather more costly, the 
manufacturers of Lucifer matches object to use it. 



PAPER MAKING MACHINERY. 

Cheap literature and the large development of 
newspapers are principally attributable to the im- 
provements in Paper Making, by the aid of ma- 
chinery. 

In the former modes of making paper, the work- 
man held in his hands a square frame covered with 
wires, which he dipped into the prepared cotton or 
linen pulp, which was kept in suspension by being 
agitated in water, and taking up a quantity sufl&cient 
to cover the frame, he moved the pulp about hori- 
zontally, to spread it evenly over the surface of the 
wires. Another workman transferred the layer of 
pulp on to felt, and in this manner one sheet was laid 
upon another, with felt between each. They were 
next subjected to great pressure, for the purpose of 
making the fibrous particles cohere sufficiently to 
form sheets of paper. The felts were then removed, 
and the sheets were piled upon one another and again 
pressed, after which they were dried, sized, and 
finished. 

Paper Making, by that process, was a slow opera- 
tion. The thickness and evenness of the sheets de- 



222 GREAT FACTS. 

pended altogether on the judgment and skill of the 
workman, and their size was necessarily limited by 
the dimensions of the frame. By the improved 
methods, nearly all the work is done by machinery. 
The soft fibrous pulp, which is to be converted into 
paper, enters the machine at one end, and in the 
course of two minutes it is delivered at the other end 
of the machine in a continuous sheet, that may ex- 
tend for miles. By supplemental contrivances the 
paper is cut into sheets, piled together, and presented 
in a salable form. 

The world is indebted to a Frenchman, named 
Louis Robert, for the invention of the first machine 
for making paper. He was a workman in M. Didot's 
paper mill, at Essones, and for his contrivance of a 
method for making continuous paper, he obtained 
from the French Government, in 1799, the sum of 
8,000 francs and a patent for the manufacture of the 
machines. The political agitation in France at that 
period prevented much progress from being made 
with the invention, but after the Peace of Amiens, 
in 1802, M. Didot, jun. came to this country, accom- 
panied by his brother-in-law, Mr. Gamble, for the 
purpose of making arrangements to carry it into ef- 
fect. They induced Messrs. H. and S. Fourdrinier 
to engage with them in bringing the machinery to 
perfection, and patents obtained in this country by 
Mr. Gamble were assigned to them in 1804. 

The engineering establishment of Mr. Hall, at 
Dartford, in Kent, was selected as best adapted for 
the purpose of making the machinery and for cany- 



PAPER MAKING MACHINERY. 



223 



ing the plans into operation, 
who was engaged in the 
m anuf actoiy 5 prin cip ally 
assisted in bringing the 
machinery to perfection. 
The difficulties attending 
the completion of all the 
parts, to get them to work 
effectually, and the ob- 
struction encountered in 
introducing the machine- 
made paper, rendered the 
enterprise a ruinous specu- 
lation to those who first 
engaged in it. Messrs. 
Fourdrinier having ex- 
pended £60,000 in perfect- 
ing the machine. 

The apparatus, of which 
a representation is given 
in the annexed woodcut, 
was very complicated, but 
the essential parts may be 
readily understood. 

The rags from which 
the paper is made undergo 
a variety of processes be- 
fore they are properly re- 
duced into a state of pulp. 
They are sorted, dusted, 
boiled, and torn into pieces 
by passing through cut- 



Mr. Bryan Donkin, 




^rS 



224 GREAT FACTS. 

ting rollers ; they are then bleached and again sub- 
mitted to the grinding action of rollers, which reduce 
them into a state of fine pulp, resembling milk in 
appearance. The pulp thus prepared is placed in a 
large vat, where it is kept constantly agitated, to 
prevent the more solid parts from being deposited. 
From the vat the pulp is discharged into a cistern, 
over the edge of which it flows in a continuous stream 
upon an endless wire cloth, the meshes of which are 
so fine that there are as many as 6,000 holes in a 
square inch. 

The wire gauze, on to which the pulp is poured, 
is about 4 feet wide, and 25 feet long, and it is kept 
constantly moving onwards, by rollers at each end, 
over which it passes. The gauze is stretched out 
perfectly level, and the pulp is prevented from flow- 
ing over the edges by straps on each side, which limit 
the width of the paper. As the endless wire cloth 
moves along, an agitating motion is given to it, by 
which means the pulp is spread evenly over the sur- 
face ; the water is also drained off* through the inter- 
stices of the gauze, and this part of the process is 
expedited in the improved machines by producing a 
partial vacuum underiTeath. Before the sheet of pulp 
has arrived at the farther extremity of the wire cloth, 
it passes between two cylinders, the under one of 
which is of metal, covered with felt, and the upper 
one of wood. A slight pressure given to the pulp in 
passing between those cylinders imparts sufficient 
tenacity to it to enable it to be transferred from the 
wire gauze on to an endless web of felt, by means of 



PAPER MAKING MACHINERY. 225 

a slice that clears the pulp from the wire gauze, and 
deposits it on the felt. The latter is kept moving at 
exactly the same speed as the wire gauze, otherwise 
there would be either a rent or a fold on the sheet. 
The paper, still in a very wet state, is carried between 
cast iron rollers, and its fibres are forcibly pressed 
together, which operation squeezes out the water, 
and so far gives tenacity to the pulp that it may be 
handled without tearing. The sheet then passes on 
to other rollers, by which it is further compressed, 
and its surface smoothened. The paper is, however, 
still damp, and requires to be dried. This is done by 
passing it over large metal cylinders, heated by 
steam. The process of making the paper is then 
completed, and the continuous sheet may be wound 
upon a reel to any length ; but it is now usual to cut 
it up into sheets as soon as it leaves the drying 
cylinders. 

The wire cloth moves at the rate of from 25 to 40 
feet per minute, and such a machine would conse- 
quently make at least 10 yards of paper in that time, 
which is equal to a mile in three hours. The width 
of the paper is usually about 4^ feet, therefore each 
machine will make 10,450 square yards of paper in 
twelve hours ; and there are upwards of three hun- 
dred of such machines at work in this country. The 
value of the paper thus produced is calculated to ex- 
ceed two millions sterling. 

l^umerous improvements have been made in Four- 
drinier's original machine, but the principle of its con- 
struction remains essentially the same, and it is by 
10* 



226 GKEAT FACTS. 

this means that most of the paper now used for writ* 
ing or printing is mannfactured. A paper-making 
machine, on a different principle, has, however, been 
invented by Mr. Dickinson, and has been carried by 
him to great perfection. Instead of allowing the pulp 
to fall on to a flat surface of wire gauze, a polished 
hollow brass cylinder, perforated with holes and 
covered with wire cloth, revolves in contact with the 
prepared pulp, and a partial vacuum being produced 
within the cylinder, the pulp adheres to the gauze, 
and its fibres cohere sufficiently, before the cylinder 
has completed a revolution, to be turned off on to 
another cylinder covered with felt, on which it is sub- 
jected to pressure by rollers, and is thence delivered 
to the drying cylinders. 

Mr. Dickinson afterwards obtained a patent, in 
1855, for making a union paper, consisting of a thin 
sheet of that made by his own machine, and a similar 
sheet made by a Fourdrinier machine united together. 
For this purpose the two sheets were brought to- 
gether, as they passed from the machines, whilst still 
wet and in an unfinished state, and were pressed to- 
gether between rollers, by which means they were 
completely incorporated. The object of this con- 
trivance was to combine, in a single sheet, the dif- 
ferent kinds of surface which paper made by those 
two modes of manufacture present. It is also em- 
ployed economically for engravings, to give a fine 
surface to a thick sheet of coarser material. The 
threads in postage envelopes and in bankers' cheques, 
are introduced by this process of plating two surfaces 
together. 



PAPER MAKING MACHINERY. 227 

The greatly increased consumption of paper threat- 
ened to exhaust the supply of the raw material, not- 
withstanding the large import from abroad and the 
enormous supply derived from the waste of the cotton 
mills, which, when mixed with rags, produces good 
paper. The quantity of old rags, old junk, and other 
fibrous materials imported for the purpose of making 
paper, in 1850, is stated in the Jury Reports of the 
Great Exhibition to have amounted to 8,124: tons. 
This large importation, added to the stock of rags 
supplied by the country itself, was, however, inade- 
quate to meet the consumption, and search was anx- 
iously made for other fibrous substances that could be 
converted into paper ; — peat, cocoa-nut fibre, grass, 
straw, and even wood have been used for the purpose. 
Of those substances, straw has been most successfully 
applied, and straw paper — excellent to write upon, 
though not bright in colour — ^is now made at very 
low prices. The straw is first cut up into short 
lengths, of about half an inch, by a chaff-cutting ma- 
chine, and after undergoing various processes of tritu- 
ration and bleaching, it is reduced into a pulp, sufii- 
ciently adhesive to make a strong paper. 

The plan of drying the paper as it leaves the rol- 
lers of the machine, was introduced by Mr. Cromp- 
ton in 1820, and that gentleman was also the first to 
introduce a machine for cutting the paper into sheets 
as soon as it is dried. The first invention of the kind 
was patented by Mr. Crompton, in conjunction with 
Mr. Miller and Professor Oowper, in 1828. The con- 
tinuous web of paper was made to pass directly from 



228 



GREAT FACTS. 



the drying apparatus to the cutting machine, by which 
it was first slit into bands of the required width by 
means of a series of sharp discs of steel, adjustable on 
two parallel axes. The bands of paper then passed 
on to shears, placed transversely, that cut it into sheets 
of any required length, which were laid upon one an- 
other, to be divided into quires. 

Several other cutting machines have since been 
invented, the simplest of which is the one patented 
by Mr. Dickinson, which is represented in the 
woodcut. 




The paper may be taken directly from the drying 
cylinders or from a reel, as shown in the diagram at 
a. The sheet passes over a large drum and through 
several guide rollers, till it is carried across the table 
a A, where it is cut lengthwise by knives, as it passes 
along. A series of chisel-edged cutters are placed at 
regulated distances beneath the table ; and whilst the 
paper is stretched over it, several circular knives, /y, 
fixed into a swing frame, gg^ at corresponding distances 
with the knives beneath, are swung across the sheet, 
and cut it in the manner of a pair of shears. Other 
kinds of cutting machines are contrived, by which 



PAPER MAKING MACHINERY. 229 

sheets of writing paper, when collected in quires, are 
squeezed tightly together, and their edges are smoothly 
and evenly cut. 

"We must not conclude this notice of Paper Mak- 
ing Machinery without alluding to the ingenious self- 
acting mechanisms for making envelopes. In the 
Great Exhibition of 1851 there were three different 
machines exhibited in action, each one producing, 
with great rapidity, those neat coverings for letters, 
for which the penny postage system has created so 
great a demand. The paper, cut into the desired form 
by a separate machine, was piled up on one side of 
the envelope folder. It was taken, sheet by sheet, 
and stretched on a small table, on the middle of which 
there was a trap door, held up by a spring to a level 
with the rest of the table. A plunger, of the same 
size as the envelope to be made, pressed the trap 
down into a recess, and raised the four corners of the 
paper, the edges of which were then gummed, and 
small mechanical fingers folded them down. The com- 
pleted envelope was then thrown out into a basket, 
or it slided out of the machine on to those before made. 

Each of those machines, with a boy as an attend- 
ant, will fold 2,Y00 envelopes in an hour, which is 
nearly the same number that an experienced workman 
can fold in a day with a folding stick. Notwithstand- 
ing the supplanting of manual labour to so great an 
extent by these ingenious mechanisms, the effect of 
increased facility of manufacture has been to give in- 
creased employment, and many more persons are 
now engaged in making envelopes than were so em- 
ployed before the invention of the machines. 



PEDsTING MACHINES. 

The associated inventions of paper making and 
printing have progressed hand in hand together ; the 
increased facility with which paper can be made by 
machinery having been equalled, if not surpassed, by 
the rapidity with which it can be printed. 

The old wooden printing press, that was in general 
use at the beginning of the present century, is now an 
object of curiosit}^, and a few specimens of it are to be 
seen, even in country printing offices. 

The principal working part of the wooden press 
consisted of a block of wood, having a perfectly flat 
and smooth surface, half the size of an ordinary sheet 
of printing paper, which was brought down upon the 
types by means of a screw that was turned by a long 
lever. The types, placed upon a fiat stone embedded 
in a movable table, were inked with large soft balls 
covered with pelts. The damped paper was put into 
a frame, at the back of which blankets were placed, 
and was laid lightly on the inked types. The movable 
table was then pushed under the block of wood, called 
the " platten," the long lever was j)nlled with great 
strength, and the platten being thus brought forcibly 
upon the blankets and paper, one-half of the sheet 



PRINTING MACHINES. 231 

was printed. The lever, on being released, sprang 
back to its former position, and the table with the 
types "upon it was pushed farther under the platten, 
which was again pulled down to print the other half 
of the sheet. The table was then pulled back, and 
the sheet of paper, printed on one side, was removed. 
These operations occupied considerable time, and the 
regular work of two men, with a wooden press, was 
to print 250 sheets an hour on one side. 

This original contrivance for printing was sup- 
planted by the Stanhope press, one of the most admi- 
rable arrangements for the advantageous application 
of the lever that is to be found in the whole range of 
mechanical contrivances. 

The improved printing press, invented by Lord 
Stanhope, the first of which was completed in 1800, 
is made altogether of iron. The platten is of the full 
size of the sheet of paper to be printed, and the work 
is done at a single pull. The requisite power is ob- 
tained by a combination of levers, so adjusted that 
the platten is brought down rapidly in the first in- 
stance, before any pressure is required, and w^ien it 
comes to bear upon the types, the levers act with the 
greatest possible mechanical advantage, so that the 
handle moves through the space of a foot, whilst the 
platten descends only the twentieth part of an inch. 
By this means a large sheet of paper can be printed 
off by a single pull, and with more impression and 
greater sharpness than by two pulls with a wooden 
press. 

Great as was this improvement in the printing 



232 GREAT FACTS. 

press, its action was still very slow, compared with 
the rapidity of printing we are now accustomed to, it 
being considered quick work, with a small Stanhope 
press, to print 500 sheets an hour. The author re- 
members to have seen the Globe newspaper printed 
by an old wooden press in 1820 ; and, about the same 
time, the London Courier^ by a Stanhope press. In 
order to supply the large demand for the latter paper, 
it was then customary to print off three pages early 
in the day, and to set up the types for the fourth 
page, containing the latest news, three or four times, 
and to print it at as many sepiarate presses. The 
pressmen could thus, by great exertion, perfect the 
printing, when three presses were used, at the rate of 
1,500 an hour. The Times newspaper, which greatly 
exceeds the size of the Courier^ is now printed by a 
machine at the rate of 13,000 an hour. 

The invention of printing machines was preceded 
by the manufacture of inking rollers, to supersede the 
pelt balls for distributing the ink over the types. 
Earl Stanhope had endeavoured in vain to construct 
inking rollers, for which purpose he tried skins and 
pelts of various kinds, but the seam proved an ob- 
stacle that he could not overcome. In 1808, a '' new 
elastic composition ball for printing," which con- 
sisted principally of treacle and glue, to serve as a 
substitute for pelts, M^as invented by Mr. Edward 
Dyas, a man of great original genius, the parish clerk 
of Madeley, in Shropshire. These balls were first in- 
troduced into the extensive printing oflSice of the late 
Mr. Edward Houlston, of Wellington, where they 



FEINTING MACiaiNES. 233 

were for some time exclusively used, and that print- 
ing-office consequently became celebrated for the ex- 
cellence of its work. A similar composition was some 
years afterwards cast in the form of rollers, upon a 
hollow core of wood, by the late Mr. Harrild ; and 
these rollers have proved a far n?ore cleanly and more 
expeditious mode of inking the types than the balls. 
These inking rollers supplied an essential want in the 
working of Printing Machines. 

The invention of Printing Machines underwent 
many changes before it was brought to a practical 
form. Such a machine was first projected in 1790, 
by Mr. Nicholson, who proposed to place the types 
and paper upon cylinders, and to distribute and ap- 
ply the ink also by cylinders. Another plan, more 
closely approaching that of the printing machines 
afterwards perfected by Mr. Napier and others, was 
to place the types upon a table and the paper upon 
an impressing cylinder, and to move the table back- 
wards and forwards under it. In 1813, Messrs. Don- 
kin and Bacon proposed placing the types upon a 
prism, which was to revolve against an irregularly 
shaped cylinder, on which the paper was to be placed. 
Nothing, however, could be effectually done in pro- 
ducing a proper working printing machine until the 
invention of inking rollers. 

In 1814, Messrs. Bauer and Koenig succeeded in 
constructing a machine, which was erected at the 
Times office, that produced 1,800 impressions an 
hour ; and it continued in use till 1827. This rapidity 
of action, compared with that of the most improved 



234 GKEAT FACTS. 

printing press, produced a revolution in tlie art of 
printing; attention was then directed almost exclu- 
sively to the further improvement of the machines, 
and the platten press was neglected. 

In the form of printing machines generally used, 
the types are laid upon an iron table that is moved to 
and fro by the turning of a wheel connected with 
a steam engine. The paper is placed upon cylinders 
covered with flannel, and the impression of the types 
is produced by the cylinders being fixed so closel}^ to 
them that, as the table passes backwards and forwards, 
there is great pressure. The types are inked by a 
series of rollers, by which the ink is distributed and 
evenly laid on the face of the types witliout any 
manual labour. 

The mechanical power gained by an arrangement 
of this kind arises from the pressure being exerted on 
a small surface at a time ; consequently the power 
required for producing the impression of the types 
is not nearly so great as when the whole surface of the 
types makes the impression at the same instant. The 
force actually pressing on the types, from contact with 
the cylinders, is very much less than that brought to 
bear on them by the platten of the Stanhope press ; 
but as it acts on a smaller surface at a time, the 
amount of pressure on each part, successively, greatly 
exceeds that received by any similar portion when it 
is impressed all at once. The diff'erence of the action 
of the platten and of the cylinder may be compared 
to the diff'erent effects produced by a knife when 
pressed with its edge and with its flat side against a 



PRINTING MACHINES. 



235 



yielding surface ; the pressure on the flat surface may 
not be sufficient to leave any impression, whilst a 
much smaller pressure on the edge will produce an 
indentation. 

The accompanying woodcut is a representation 
of one of Messrs. Applegath and Cowper's machines 
for printing both sides of the paper at the same time. 

It consists of a cast-iron frame, about 14 feet long 
and 4 feet wide, on which the iron table, with the 
types upon it, slides backward and forward under two 
large cast-iron cylinders, covered with blankets, 
whereon the paper is laid. The pages of type to be 
printed on one side of the paper, and those pages that 




are to be printed on the back, are wedged into iron 
frames, called " chases," and these chases are fixed on 
the table at such a distance from each other, that they 
will pass under the two cylinders in the same relative 
positions. The sheets of paper are held on to the 
cylinders at their edges by means of tapes, and are so 



236 GEEAT FACTS. 

laid on by the workmen, that the type may be im- 
pressed on them with an equal margin all round. At 
each end of the machine is a supply of ink, which is 
taken from long iron rollers, about three inches in 
diameter, each of which turns in contact with a flat 
iron bar, that only allows a small quantity of ink to 
pass. A comjoosition inking roller is made to vibrate 
between the inking table, where on the ink is thinly 
and evenly spread, and the iron feeding roller, and 
thus delivers the requisite quantity of ink on to the 
table. Several other composition rollers are placed 
across the inking table, with their axes resting in 
notched bearings, so that as the inking table moves 
forward and backward, those rollers distribute the 
ink evenly over it. There are four other rollers (none 
of which are shown in the diagram), which take the 
ink from the table ; and as the types pass from under 
.the cylinders, after printing a sheet, and return to 
them, they pass twice under the inking rollers. Each 
sheet of paper is laid by a boy on a web of tapes, by 
which it is carried round one paper cylinder, and then 
over and under two wooden drums to the other paper 
cylinder. The sheet of paper, in the course of its 
progress, is turned over, so as to receive the second 
impression on the other side ; and as the tapes that 
carry it along leave the second cylinder, they divide, 
and the printed sheet falls into the hands of a boy. 

In the printing machine which was shown at work 
in the Great Exhibition, invented by Mr. Applegath 
and made by Mr. Middleton, for printing the Times^ 
the arrangements differ materially from those of the 



PRINTING MACHINES. 237 

horizontal macliines already described. The types, 
instead of being placed on a table, and moved to and 
fro under the impressing cylinders, are fixed to a 
large vertical cylinder, upwards of 16 feet in diameter, 
and there are eight impressing cylinders ranged ver- 
tically round it, with their axes fixed. By this ar- 
rangement there is no loss of time in withdrawing the 
types from under the cylinder to be again inked, but 
they move round from one fixed cylinder to another, 
receiving their ink between each, and thus producing 
eight impressions in succession during one complete 
revolution. At the Times printing office there are 
now three machines of that construction, two of which, 
with eight cylinders, print ten thousand an hour, and 
the other one, which has nine impressing cylinders, 
thirteen thousand. 

The operations for printing that newspaper ex- 
hibit marvellous efi'orts of human ingenuity and skill, 
brought to bear in producing with the requisite rapi- 
dity a sufficient number of impressions to supply its 
enormous circulation. After the types have been 
composed and corrected, and ranged into columns 
and screwed up into their chases by upwards of one 
hundred hands, each page of type is attached to the 
large vertical cylinder — a curved form having been 
given to the type to adapt it to the circular surface. 
Nine men, standing each one beside a heap of damped 
paper, feed the largest machine by separating the 
sheets singly from the heap, and present them suc- 
cessively to the action of small rollers, that give each 
sheet a forward impulse, which brings it within the 



238 GREAT FACTS. 

grasp of a series of endless tapes. These tapes catch 
hold of the sheets of paper, and carry them down to 
the level of the types. They are then shot along hori- 
zontally to the pressing rollers, covered with blankets, 
round which they are carried and pressed against the 
types ; after which the endless tapes carry them 
away, and deliver them printed to a man below, who 
spreads them one over the other. A large reservoir 
of ink at the top of the machine supplies the inking 
tables, from which it is spread evenly over the inking 
rollers, and, at each revolution of the type cylinder, 
nine sheets are printed on one side. They are then 
taken to a second machine to be printed on the back, 
or, as it is called, " perfected." The accompanying 
engraving shows the general arrangement of the ma- 
chines. 

Few mechanical contrivances present so striking 
an illustration of the application of human ingenuity 
to the production of important results, and to the sav- 
ing of labour, as these printing machines. To see the 
sheets of paper travelling along the tapes — to see 
them shoot downwards, carried sideways in one di- 
rection and back again, and delivered with half a 
million of words impressed upon them in less than 
three seconds, seems like the work of magic. To 
copy that • number of words, thus printed in three 
seconds, would occupy a rapid penman forty days, 
working ten hours a day. 

Great as are the printing powers of these ma- 
chines of Mr. Applegath's, they have been surpassed 
more recently by one placed close beside theni, in- 



PRINTING MACHINES. 



239 



vented by Mr. Hoe, of New York. In that machine 
the type cylinder is placed horizontally, by which 
means the paper is supplied directly to it without 




altering its direction. As many as twenty thousand 
impressions in an liour have been produced by the 



240 GREAT FACTS. 

American machine, but it is not yet sufficiently per- 
fected to be brought into regular use. 

In another part of the Times establishment there 
is an ingenious machine for wetting the paper, by 
which contrivance much labour and time are saved. 
The paper, heaped in a pile at one end of a table, is 
presented in quires at a time to the action of a roller, 
which drags it on to a moving endless blanket, that 
is kept wet by a stream of water, and the upper sur- 
face is wetted by a long brush, placed over the 
blanket. The wetted paper is heaped upon a truck, 
which gradually descends, to keep the upper sheets 
on a level with the table, till the paper is piled up a 
yard in thickness. The truck is then raised, by 
hydraulic pressure, to the level of the floor, and is 
wheeled away and another one is loaded. Between 
nine and ten tons of paper are thus wetted daily ; 
and the sheets of the Times printed during a year, if 
spread out and piled one upon another, would form a 
column as high as Mont Blanc. The quantity of ink 
daily consumed in the printing is upwards of two 
hundredweight. The machine is worked by two 
steam-engines, each of 16-horse power ; and the noise 
of the numerous wheels and rapidly revolving cylin- 
ders is almost deafening. 

The great rapidity and the comparative cheapness 
of printing by machines, together with the greater 
facility of making paper by machinery, have been 
the means of creating a demand for books which it 
would be impossible to supply, unless those means 
were at command. Thousands and hundreds of thou- 



PRINTING MACHINES. 241 

sands of copies of publications, that spread knowledge 
among the people of the highest interest to the wel- 
fare of man, and replete with useful information of 
every kind, are now sold at prices which would be 
impossible, were it not for the improvements that 
have been made in the manufacture of paper, and in 
the means of printing. 

Nor should we omit to notice, as one of the causes 
that have contributed to the production of cheap 
literature, the art of stereotyping, which has been 
perfected during the present century. Earl Stanhope, 
the inventor of the admirable press that bears his 
name, was prominent in bringing that art to perfec- 
tion. 

JsTumerous attempts had been made in the last 
century to produce casts from pages of type. So early, 
indeed, as 1700, some almanacks and pamjDhlets 
were printed in Paris from castings ; and an edi- 
tion of Sallust was printed in Edinburgh in 1739, from 
stereotype plates produced by Mr. Ged, a goldsmith. 
The process, however, was not encouraged, and on 
his death it was not further proceeded with. The 
most important advance in the art was made by M. 
Hoffman, of Alsace, who, in 17S4:, succeeded in ob- 
taining stereotype plates by casting them in moulds 
of clay mixed with gelatine in which the pages of 
type were impressed, with which he printed a work 
in three volumes ; but the castings were imperfect, 
and the plan was soon afterwards abandoned. Among 
the many plans tried to obtain j)erfect casts of the 
types when set up, was one contrived by M. Carez, a 
11 



242 GKEAT FACTS. 

printer of Toul, who, in 1791 , endeavoured to obtain 
casts in lead from a page of type, by allowing it to 
drop on tbe fused metal when it was in a state of set- 
ting. The matrices thus obtained were in like man- 
ner impressed on a fusible metal, which melted at a 
lower temperature than the lead. Good casts were 
often thus procured, but the uncertainty of the pro- 
cess, arising from the frequent fusion of the lead 
matrices, caused it to be discontinued. Other plans 
were tried in France with more or less success, but 
nothing was done practically until Lord Stanhope 
directed his attention to the subject in 1800, and re- 
sorted to the original method of obtaining matrices, 
by impressing the pages of type in a cold plastic sub- 
stance. He employed plaster of Paris for his mould ; 
and when they were thoroughly dried, they were 
plunged in fused type-metal ; and in this manner a 
perfect cast in metal of the original page of movable 
type was produced. The process has been still further 
perfected, and casts from movable types, and from 
wood engravings, are now made with great facility, 
and the impressions from them are quite equal to the 
originals. 

When it is intended to stereotype a work, the 
movable types used in composing it are new, and 
the "spaces" that separate the words from each 
other are longer than is customary when the type is 
to be printed from. These elongated spaces reach 
nearly to the face of the letters, so that the plaster 
may not sink between them. By this means the 
mould is easily removed from the face of the page of 



PRINTING MACHINES. 243 

type. The metal casting of each page is very thin, and 
when required to be used, it is screwed on to blocks 
of wood to the same height as ordinary types. 

Several attempts have been made to apply other 
substances than plaster of Paris and type-metal for 
stereotyping. At the Great Exhibition there were 
specimens of gutta percha stereotypes, that produced 
excellent impressions, and there were also fine stereo- 
type castings of type in iron, from which a copy of 
the Bible had been printed. Papier mache has been 
found to be a material peculiarly applicable for the 
purpose, and it is now superseding the use of plaster 
of Paris for taking casts of the types. 

By the application of the art of stereotyping, casts 
in metal of valuable works can be kept ready at any 
time, to be printed from when more copies are re- 
quired ; and the expense is saved of keeping on hand 
large stocks of printed paper, or of having a work re- 
composed when a further edition is wanted. 

The inventions of Printing Machines and stereo- 
typing were strongly opposed at first by pressmen and 
compositors, as calculated to diminish the demand for 
their labour. In " Johnson's Typographia," published 
in 1824:, the "new-fangled articles" are mentioned in 
a spirit of great bitterness; and the writer thus poured 
forth his lamentations at the prospective ruin of the 
members of his profession : — ^^ We are much surprised 
at the apathy and supineness shown by the body of 
master printers with respect to the subject under dis- 
cussion ; they most assuredly had good and sufficient 
grounds for an application to Parliament for a tax, 



244 GKEAT FACTS. 

that sliould bring the work so executed upon an 
equality with that done by manual labour." — " We 
feel satisfied that the above would not have met with 
encouragement from a British public, had they been 
aware of the evils attendant on it ; they have not 
only to pay a full price for the work, but also extra 
poor's rates, in consequence of the men being thus 
out of employ; likewise they are countenancing the 
breaking up and destruction of all the energy and 
talent of that art which was England's proudest boast, 
and her shield against all the threats of her foreign 
foes.'^ 

These predictions of ruin have been completely 
falsified. It has been with the Printing Machines as 
with most other improved machinery for the saving 
of labour : on their first introduction some hands, no 
doubt, were thrown out of employ, but the advan- 
tages derived from the saving of labour very soon re- 
acted favourably in creating a greater demand for 
labour than before. The number of cheap periodi- 
cals, and the extensive issues of cheap literature in 
every form, require a much larger number of work- 
men to supply the demand, even with the aid of ma- 
chinery, than was needed in the best days of the 
manual printing press ; and at no time were so many 
compositors and pressmen employed as at present. 

In the Reports of the Juries of the Great Exhi- 
bition, some interesting statistics are given, showing 
the influence of the invention of Printing Machines 
in extending the demand for books and periodicals. 
"The machine," it is observed, ''created a demand. 



PRINTING MACHINES. 245 

and called into existence books which, bnt for it, 
would scarcely have been thought of. As the ma- 
chine-work from type and woodcuts was far better 
than the ordinary printing of the day, booksellers 
were induced to print extensive editions, because 
they saw the machine could accomplish all they re- 
quired. One of the first booksellers who availed 
himself of this power was Mr. Charles Knight, who 
projected the ' I^enny Magazine,' on a hint from Mr. 
M. D. Hill, Queen's Counsel. Each number, pub- 
lished weekly, consisted of eight pages of letterpress, 
illustrated with good wood engravings. The public 
was astonished at the cheapness and good quality of 
the work, but it was its immense sale which rendered 
it profitable ; for some years it amounted to 180,000 
copies weekly. Mr. Knight, whose services in the 
cause of educational literature entitle him to the 
highest praise, expended £5,000 a year in woodcuts 
for this work. The Cowper machine has been the 
cause of the many pictorial illustrations which char- 
acterize so large a portion of modern publications. 
The ' Saturday Magazine,' ' Chambers' Journal,' the 
^Magasin Pittoresque,' in France, and numerous 
others, owe their existence to this printing machine. 
The principle of cheap editions and large sales soon 
extended to established works of a higher value. A 
remarkable instance of this was the edition of Sir 
Walter Scott's Works, with notes, edited by himself; 
instead of the old price 10s. 6d., they were sold at 5s. 
a volume,"^ and the demand created by this reduction 

* This statement does not adequately represent the reduction in 



246 GREAT FACTS. 

in price was so great, that, thougli the printer had a 
strong prejudice against machines, he was compelled 
to have them, the presses of his large establishment 
proving totally imable to perform the work, which 
amounted to upwards of 1,000 volumes per day for 
about two years. The Universities of Cambridge and 
Oxford have adopted Mr. Cowper's machines for print- 
ing vast numbers of Bibles, prayer-books, &c., &c. 
A Bible which formerly cost 3s. may now be had for 
Is. Mr. Cowper recommended the Religious Tract 
Society to put aside their coarse woodcuts, to have 
superior wood engravings, and to print with his ma- 
chine. The Society adopted those suggestions, and 
the result is, that by sending forth well-printed books, 
it could now support itself by their sale, withont any 
aid from subscriptions.'' 

As an illustration of the facilities afforded by the 
invention of Printing Machines in producing cheap 
editions of the writings of popular authors, the fol- 
lowing curious facts relating to the Works of Sir 
"Walter Scott, in addition to those furnished in the 
Reports of the Juries, may be found interesting. 

In 1842, a general issue of these Works, in weekly 
sheets or numbers, at twopence each, was commenced 
by the late Mr. Robert Cadell, of Edinburgh, and 
completed in 1847. Of this edition, up to the present 
period (1858), the astonishing number of twelve 
MILLIONS OF SHEETS havc bccu issued, the weight of 

price ; for each Tolume, sold at 5s., contained a volume and a half as 
originally published, besides Sir Walter Scott's notes ; and the cheap 
volumes were illustrated with steel engravings. 



PBINTING MACHINES. 247 

which amounts to upwards of 335 tons ! Another 
edition was published simultaneously by Mr. Cadell 
in monthly volumes at -is., each containing about 360 
pages ; this series has reached a sale of more than 
500,000 volumes. A third cheap issue, at eighteen- 
pence a novel, is now being published by the present 
proprietors, Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, of 
Edinburgh. Nearly 300,000 volumes have already 
been printed of this edition. 

It may be mentioned here, although hardly com- 
ing within the scope of the present article, but as af- 
fording a striking example of what literature has con- 
tributed to the revenue of the country in the person 
of a single author, that upwards of 3,500 tons' weight 
of paper ^ have been consumed in producing the 
various editions of Sir Walter Scott's Writings and 
Life ; and the duty paid to Government on the pa- 
per, even at the present reduced rate, amounts to no 
less a sum than £51,450 ! 

Since the Juries made their Reports, the develop- 
ment of cheap literature has been greatly extended. 
Newspapers, some of which contain eight full-sized 
pages, of six columns each, printed in small type, are 
sold for the marvellously low price of a penny, and 
are stated to issue as many as 50,000 copies daily ; 
and some of the newspapers and other periodicals, 
printed on good paper, are issued for a halfpenny. 
Among the works of a standard character, published 
at prices which nothing but a very extensive scale 

* If the number of sheets of paper used in printing these works 
were laid side by side, they would extend nearly fifty thousand miles ! 



248 



GREAT FACTS. 



could make remunerative, may be mentioned the 
popular series which includes " The Reason Why," 
and " Enquire Within upon Everything." Of the 
eight volumes already issued, each containing about 
350 closely printed pages for half-a-crown, nearly 
170,000 copies have been sold within a period of less 
than three years. 



LITHOGEAPHY. 

The art of printing from stone was invented at 
the end of the last century by M. Aloys Senefelder, 
of Munich ; but it was not brought to such a state of 
perfection as to be practically useful until many 
years afterwards. 

The principle on which Lithography depends is 
the different chemical affinities of water for oily and 
for earthy substances, which cause it to run off from 
the one and adhere to the other. The drawing or 
writing is made in oily ink upon a smooth calcareous 
stone that will absorb water, so that, when the stone 
is moistened, the water adheres to it and leaves the 
lines of the drawing traced upon it dry. An inking 
roller, charged with an oily ink, is then passed over 
the stone and inks the drawing, but leaves all the 
other parts of the stone quite clean. A damped pa- 
per is next laid on, and when subjected to great pres- 
sure, an exact copy of the drawing or writing is pro- 
duced. 

This simple and ingenious process has been carried 
to such perfection, that the most beautiful artistic 



250 GREAT FACTS. 

effects can be produced by it far more economically 
than by any other style of engraving ; and further 
improvements in the art are being continually made. 
It is satisfactory, therefore, to be able to trace its 
history from its very beginnings, of which an inter- 
esting account has been published by the inventor 
himself. 

M. Senefelder's father was an actor at Munich, 
and in his youth he followed the same profession. He 
turned his attention afterwards to music ; and it was 
in his attempts to devise some means of printing his 
compositions economically that he chanced to dis- 
cover the art of Lithography. 

He had previously made himself acquainted with 
the methods of copper-plate printing, and he com- 
menced his operations by etching the notes of music 
on copper-plates, covered with varnish in the ordi- 
nary way. He found, however, that it would require 
much practice to enable him to do this properly, and 
not being able to buy copper-plates for his rude essays, 
he thought of practising upon stones. Fortunately 
for the success of his efforts, the quarries at Solenhofen, 
near Munich, supplied him with slabs of stone admi- 
rably adapted for the purpose ; and it is a remarkable 
coincidence, that the material which Senefelder used 
for his experiments is the best for the purpose of Litho- 
graphy that has hitherto been discovered. His chief 
object in making use of these slabs of stone was to 
practise himself in the manipulation of writing the 
notes, and of biting them in with aqua-fortis (nitric 
acid), as he supposed the slabs would be too brittle 



LITHOGRAPHY. 251 

to bear the action of the press. He did not try, 
therefore, to have these etchings on stone proved by 
the press, but he contented himself with holding them 
up to a mirror to observe the progress he was making 
in writing backwards. 

Having at length been supplied with much thicker 
slabs of stone, to bear the requisite pressure, he en- 
deavoured to grind and polish them sufl&ciently for 
the purpose of being printed from, in the same man- 
ner as copper-plates. He succeeded to some extent 
in doing so, by means of diluted nitric acid ; and he 
contrived to obtain about fifty good impressions from 
the stone. 

In all these attempts at Lithography, the lines were 
etched into the stone by the action of nitric acid, and 
the only advantages professed to be gained by the 
process were the questionable ones of comparative 
cheapness of material, and greater facility of working. 
M. Senefelder admits that there was nothing new in 
engraving upon stone ; all that he claims in that part 
of the invention is, the manner of polishing the sur- 
face, and the composition of the ink adapted for 
printing from it The most important step in the 
progress of the invention of Lithography, as at pres- 
ent practised, was made by accident, which he thus 
describes : — 

" I was preparing a slab of stone for engraving, 
when my mother asked me to write a memorandum of 
things she was about to send to be washed. The 
washerwoman was waiting impatiently whilst we 
searched in vain for a piece of paper, and the common 



252 GREAT FACTS. 

writing ink was dried up. Having no other writing 
materials, I wrote the washing bill on the stone I was 
about to prepare for engraving, using for the purpose 
mj ink made of wax, soap, and lamp-black, intending 
to copy it afterwards on paper. Whilst looking at 
the letters I had written, the idea all at once occurred 
to me how it would do to cover the stone, with the 
writing upon it, with aqua-fortis, so as to leave them 
in relief, and then to print from them in the same 
manner as woodcuts, with a common letter press. The 
attempts I had hitherto made to engrave upon stone 
had taught me that the relief of the letters thus ob- 
tained would not be much. JSTevertheless, I made 
the attempt. I mixed one part of aqua-fortis with 
five parts of water, and poured it on the stone to the 
height of two inches, having previously walled it 
round with wax in the usual manner. The diluted 
aqua-fortis was permitted to rest on the stone five 
minutes. I then examined the effect, and I found 
that the letters were raised above the stone about the 
thickness of a card. Most of the lines were uninjured, 
and retained their original size aad thickness. This 
gave me the assurance that writing, sufficiently traced, 
especially if the letters were in printed characters, 
would have still greater relief."^ 

Though M. Senefelder had advanced thus far, he 
had not yet made application of the chemical prop- 
erties of ink and water, v/hich constitute the distin- 
guishing characteristics of Lithography. That was 

* " L'Art de la Lithographie ; " par M. Aloys Senefelder, Inventeur 
de FArt Lithographique. Munich, 1859. 



LITHOGRAPHY. 253 

reserved for a further discovery, also brought about 
by accident. The difficulty he experienced in writing 
words on the stone in the reverse way, induced him 
to adopt the plan of writing the letters on paper with a 
soft black-lead pencil, and then transferring them on 
to the stone by pressure. He subsequently used litho- 
graphic ink for the purpose ; and in the course of his 
experiments he observed, that when a paper written 
on with lithographic ink, and well dried, was dipped 
into water on which some oil was floating, the oil ad- 
hered to the writing, and left the rest of the paper 
clean, and that this efi'ect was most striking when the 
water contained some gum in solution. This discovery 
induced him to try the efi*ect on printed paper ; and, 
taking a printed page from an old book, he moistened 
it with gum-water, and afterwards sponged the whole 
surface with oil colour. The colour adhered to the 
letters, and left the paper clean, and after further ex- 
periments he succeeded in printing as many as fifty 
copies from a page of printed paper ; the letters, of 
course, being reversed. The idea then suggested it- 
self of transferring, on to stone, letters written with 
lithographic ink upon paper. The plan succeeded, 
and the principle of the art of Lithography was thus 
applied to practice. M. Senefelder, in his subsequent 
improvements, gave a slight relief to the letters by 
the original plan of using diluted aqua-fortis, by which 
means the impressions obtained were blacker. He 
also contrived the means of printing in colours from 
stone, by reversing the process of ordinary litho- 
graphic printing. To produce coloured prints, he left 



254 GREAT FACTS. 

uncovered all the parts that were to receive the 
colour, and the other parts of the stone were covered 
with an oleaginous fluid, that quickly dried. On ap- 
plying any water-colour to the stone, it adhered to the 
uncovered surface, and not to the covered parts, and 
that colour was transferred to paper by pressure. In 
this manner, by asing several stones properly pre- 
pared, the different colours required were printed, and 
the effect of a coloured drawing was produced. Thus 
we perceive, that almost at the first invention of the 
art of Lithography, the ingenious inventor showed the 
way of appl^dng it to the production of coloured 
prints, a process which has lately been carried to 
great perfection. 

Senefelder lived to see his invention extensively 
adopted, and to reap benefit from his ingenuity. He 
died at Munich, in 1834, after having been many 
years the director of the Government lithographic 
office ; and, in the latter years of his life he received 
a handsome pension from the King of Bavaria. 

There is little to be added to the description of the 
process of Lithography, beyond that given by the 
original inventor in 1819, the principal advances that 
have been made in the art having consisted in im- 
proved methods of manipulating. The ink now gene- 
rally employed for drawing on the stone consists of 
equal parts of tallow, wax, shell-lack, and soap, mixed 
with about one-twentieth part of lamp-black ; but the 
composition is varied, according to the kind of design 
to be executed. For writing or drawing upon paper, 
to be transferred to the stone, more wax is added to 
the ink, to give it greater tenacity. 



LITHOGRAPHY. 255 

The drawing upon paper, to be transferred to stone, 
is not attended with any difficulty, and may be done 
by ordinary artists. The ink is applied with a pen, 
or camel's hair pencil, and when the effect of chalk 
drawings is required to be imitated, the ink is shaded 
by means of stumps, similar to those used in chalk 
drawings on paper. Some artists prefer to work di- 
rectly on tlie stone with a camel's hair pencil, or 
with a composition called lithographic chalk. 

To transfer the drawing from paper on to the 
stone, the paper is first sponged with diluted nitric 
acid, which decomposes the size, and renders it bibu- 
lous. After being placed for an instant between 
blotting paper, to remove superfluous moisture, it is 
laid with the drawing downwards on the stone, which 
is slightly warmed. The stone is then passed through 
the press, and the drawing adheres firmly to it. To 
remove the paper, it is wetted at the back with water, 
and, when quite soft, it is rubbed with the hand. In 
this manner every particle of the fibrous pulp is 
cleared away, and the drawing or writing in ink re- 
mains as if it had been drawn directly on the stone. 
To prepare the stone for taking the ink, gum water 
is poured upon it, and it is rubbed over with a rag 
containing printer's ink, which serves to blacken the 
writing and prepares the lines for afterwards receiving 
the ink. 

The lithograph thus prepared is given to the print- 
er, who first etches it, in the manner originally prac- 
tised by M. Senefelder. The nitric acid employed 
for the purpose is diluted with about thirty parts of 



256 GREAT FACTS. 

water, and it is poured over the stone whilst it is in- 
clined on one side. This process is repeated several 
times, the object of it being not so much to give re- 
lief to the lines, as to roughen the surface of the stone, 
and thus facilitate its absorption of water. The nitric 
acid also removes, the alkali from the drawing ink. 
In printing, gum is added to the water with which 
the stone is moistened, as an additional preventive of 
the ink adhering to those parts not drawn upon. The 
printing ink is applied with large rollers, and the 
damped paper having been placed carefully upon the 
stone, with blankets at the back, it is passed through 
the press. 

The lithographic press somewhat resembles in form 
an iron printing press, but differs from it greatly in 
its mode of action. Instead of the large flat plate 
that in a printing press is pulled down upon the 
whole surface of the types, a long, narrow arm, called 
a scraper, is brought to bear upon the stone, and the 
table whereon the stone is laid is pushed forcibly un- 
der it, by which means a great pressure is exerted on 
a smaller surface at successive times, instead of being 
brought to bear all at once. In the principle of its 
action, indeed, a lithographic press is like a printing 
machine^ and steam lithographic presses have been 
invented to work in a similar manner, though the 
practical results have not generally been very suc- 
cessful. 

Among the many applications of lithography, the 
transfer of copper-plate engravings is one of the most 
useful. An impression of the plate is taken on paper 



LITHOGRAPHY. 257 

that is coated with a compound of flour, plaster of 
Paris, and glue, and from the paper it is transferred 
to stone. By this plan the original plate remains un- 
touched, and the printing from the stone is much 
cheaper than from the copper. Tinted lithography 
and chromo-lithography, by which the beautiful 
effects of coloured drawings are produced in the man- 
ner indicated by M. Senefelder, have recently been 
applied very successfully. 



AEEATED WATERS. 

The invention of soda-water, in the state in which 
it is now known, as an effervescing beverage impreg- 
nated with three or four times its volume of carbonic 
acid gas, is of very modern date. There are, indeed, 
to be found in most of the old works on chemistry de- 
scriptions of I^ooth's apparatus for impregnating 
liquids with carbonic acid ; but all that was attempted 
to be done by that apparatus was to produce an im- 
pregnation of the water with little more than the 
quantity of gas it will naturally absorb under the 
pressure of the atmosphere. It was not until about 
the year 1815 that mechanical pressure was applied 
to force a larger quantity of gas into combination 
with water, to imitate the briskly effervescing medi- 
cinal waters of Germany. 

Mr. Schweppe and Mr. Paul were the first who 
introduced the manufacture of artificial effervescing 
waters into England, and soda-water was then con- 
sidered, as tea was on its first introduction, entirely 
medicinal. Indeed, the quantity of soda which was 
at that time usually dissolved in the water gave it a 
disagreeable taste ; but when the manufacturers dimin- 



AERATED WATERS. 259 

ished the quanity of alkali, and increased tlie volume 
of gas forced into the water, they produced a pleasant 
beverage, which soon became in request for its re- 
freshing, wholesome qualities. 

The apparatus for the manufacture of soda-water, 
as it is usually made on a large scale, consists of a 
strong vessel, furnished with a safety valve, in which 
the water is impregnated with gas. This vessel, con 
taining about nine gallons, is made of thick wood, 
well seasoned and nicely fitted, and bound round 
with strong iron hoops, the heads of the cask being 
well secured by means of iron bolts and screw nuts. 
It is requisite that the receiver should be capable of 
bearing a pressure of at least six atmospheres, which 
is equal to 90 lbs. to the square inch. 

The carbonic acid gas is generated from chalk or 
whiting and diluted sulphuric acid. The materials 
are mixed together in a small closed wooden or leaden 
vessel, provided with an agitator, that can be worked 
by a handle fixed to a projecting axis at the top. The 
gas, as generated, enters by a bent tube into a gas- 
holder, the opening of the tube being under water. 
By this means the gas is freed from the fumes of sul- 
phuric acid vapour, and from the fine particles of 
chalk that become mingled with it during its sudden 
liberation. The gas sometimes undergoes a further 
purification, by passing through a gas washer, before 
it is forced into the water. 

A small force-pump, worked by a crank, with the 
assistance of a fly-wheel, draws the carbonic acid from 
the gas-holder, and forces it into the water. The com- 



260 GKEAT FACTS. 

bination of the gas and water is facilitated by an agi- 
tator, the axle of which projects through a stuffing 
box, and it is worked either by hand, or is turned by 
means of a small cog-wheel, that works into the teeth 
of a larger one fixed to the crank axle, so as to pro- 
duce rapid rotation. 

It is found requisite, in the first place, to expel the 
atmospheric air in the receiver ; for which purpose 
the safety valve is left open for a short time after the 
gas is being forced in, otherwise it would retard the 
impregnation of the water by the gas. When the gas 
and water are well incorporated, the liquid will con- 
tain as many volumes of gas as there are atmospheres 
of pressure in the air-space above it in a state ready 
to efi'ervesce, and one other volume, with water ab- 
sorbs under the pressure of the atmosphere. Thus, 
when there are three atmospheres of gas under pres- 
sure, each bottle of soda water contains four bottles 
full of gas, which are absorbed without perceptibly 
increasing its bulk. The perfect impregnation of the 
water with gas, however, requires time. The water 
will, indeed, become brisk almost as soon as two or 
three atmospheres of gas have been forced in, but it 
will not acquire the flavour of good soda-water until 
the gas and water have been allowed at least half an 
hour to digest ; and it is improved by remaining in 
contact for several hours. 

The temperature has considerable influence in the 
process of impregnation, for in hot weather the gas 
will not combine so readily, nor will the water ab- 
sorb an equal volume of gas. In summer tixne^ 



AERATED WATERS. 261 

therefore, soda-water should be made before the 
heat of the day, and ice should be added to the 
water. 

When the receiver is fully charged, and the ope- 
ration of bottling begins, everj bottle-full that is drawn 
off diminishes the pressure on the water that remains ; 
and if no means were taken to add more gas, the 
soda-water would gradually become weaker and 
weaker as each bottle was drawn off. It is usual, in 
the best arranged apparatus, to have two tubes con- 
nected with the force-pump, one of which feeds it with 
water, the other with gas, by which contrivance water 
and gas, in their proper proportions, are continually 
forced into the receiver, which may thus be always 
kept nearly full. 

The process of bottling requires great manual dex- 
terity. The neck of the bottle is pressed by a lever 
against a collar of leather fixed to a flange on the tap, 
so that, when the soda-water rushes in, no air nor gas 
can escape. The pressure inside the bottle therefore 
quickly becomes equal to that of the receiver, and the 
water ceases to flow through the tap, until some of 
the air is allowed to escape. When the bottle is 
nearly full, the operator quickly withdraws it with 
one hand, and having a cork ready in the other, he 
puts it in before the water can rush out. The cork 
is then forced in further by pressure, and fastened 
down by wires or strings. 

A bottling apparatus has been invented for facili- 
tating the process ; but a man accustomed to bottle by 
hand can do it more quickly, and with as little waste 



262 GREAT FACTS. 

of gas and water as with a macliine. Much depends, 
however, upon the state of the soda-water in the re- 
ceiver ; for if the gas be well digested, arid the tem- 
perature low, it rushes into the bottle with much less 
force, though the water may contain a greater quan- 
tity of gas, than when it is newly made, and ap- 
parently more brisk. The bottles very frequently 
burst during the operation with great violence, and 
unless they are enclosed in a guard, the men are liable 
to be severely iiyured. Glass bottles have now gen- 
erally supplanted those made of earthenware, which 
were formerly used ; and though the glass bottles are 
much stronger than the earthenware ones, the burst- 
ing of them, when it does occur, is far more dan- 
gerous. 

The process of forcing gas into the water by me- 
chanical pressure, in the manner described, requires 
great labour, for the pump has to be worked against 
a pressure exceeding fifty pounds on the square inch. 
With a view to remove that inconvenience, and to 
avoid the use of costly machinery, so that private in- 
dividuals might manufacture soda-water, the author 
contrived a modification of booth's apparatus, for 
which he obtained a patent in 1831. By that means, 
the gas is generated in a closed vessel, and forces it- 
self into the water by its own elasticity. Any amount 
of pressure can thus be obtained by chemical action 
alone. The accompanying woodcut represents a sec- 
tion of the apparatus in its improved form. The ves- 
sel, A, is made of very strong stone ware, inside which 
is the gas generator I. A few inches from tlie bottom 



AERATED WATERS. 



263 



of the generator is the partition, a^ perforated with 
holes, and near the top there is inserted the small 
tube, {?, which conveys the gas down to a perforated ex- 
pansion of the tube, d^ through the apertures of which 
the gas issues into the water contained in A. Another 
tube, e^ reaches near the bottom, and is connected 




with a stop-cock for the purpose of drawing off the 
aerated liquid. In charging the apparatus, the inte- 
rior, A, is nearly filled with water, or other liquid, 
through the opening,/*, which is then closed by cork, 
which is kept in its place by a screw nut. A few 



264 GREAT FACTS. 

ounces of carbonate of soda, mixed with water, are 
then poured into the generator through the opening 
at g. The mixture flow^s through the apertures in the 
partition, and occupies the lower part of the genera- 
tor. A proportionate quantity (about three-fourths 
of the weight of the soda) of tartaric acid in crystals 
is then introduced through ^, which lodge on the top 
of the partition without touching the soda. The open- 
ing being then closed by a screw-nut, the apparatus, 
which is mounted on pivots, with an appropriate 
stand, is swung backwards and forwards like a pen- 
dulum. The effect of this agitation is to force a por- 
tion of the water saturated with carbonate of soda 
through the apertures at a, where it comes in contact 
with the tartaric acid, and instantly generates car- 
bonic acid gas. The gas, having no other escape than 
through the tube, <?, is forced into the vessel A, and 
becomes mingled with the water by the same act of 
vibration that brings the soda and tartaric acid to- 
gether. The continuance of the vibratory action for 
a short time generates sufficient gas to aerate the water 
or other liquid contained in the vessel, A. When the 
aeration is completed, the soda-water may be drawn 
off, as required, through the stop-cock. The appara- 
tus is made of two sizes, to hold one and two gal- 
lons. 

The tartaric acid and soda in the generator do not 
mingle with the water, and the tartrate of soda, 
resulting from the combination, is emptied after the 
soda-water is drawn off, before renewing the charge. 

A French modification of this apparatus, in glass 



AERATED WATERS. 265 

vessels protected by cane netting, called a " gasogene," 
has recently been introduced, and is extensively used. 
The materials for generating the carbonic acid gas 
are put into the smaller vessels, and kept separate 
nntil the apparatus is inverted, and then gas is rap- 
idly generated, and forces itself through the water. 

The powders that are sold for making soda-water, 
by mixing them together, consist of carbonate of soda 
and tartaric acid. When brought together in solu- 
tion, a violent effervescence ensues, but the gas is not 
combined with the water in the same manner as when 
it is forced in and allowed to remain for some time 
with the liquid to be aerated. There is the further 
disadvantage attending such powders, that the tar- 
trate of soda, formed by the tartaric acid and the car- 
bonate of soda, employed to generate the gas, is 
drunk with the water. 



12 



KEVOLYEES AND MIME EIFLES. 

" Is there anything whereof it may be said. See, 
this is new ? it hath been abeady of old time, which 
was before us."^ This observation of Solomon, the 
correctness of which we have often seen verified in 
this History of Inventions, is applicable even to that 
great apparent novelty the formidable ''. Revolver " — ■ 
that death-dealing weapon, which will fire six shots 
in rapid succession by merely pulling the trigger so 
many times, as fast as it is possible. 

The Revolver was almost unknown in this country 
until 1851, when it was brought prominently into 
notice at the Great Exhibition, by the specimens 
shown there by Colonel Colt, of the United States. 
Pistols with six barrels, which might be fired succes- 
sively with the same lock, by turning them round, 
were, indeed, previously seen in gun-shops ; but their 
clumsy form and their great weight prevented them 
from being used. ISTor was Colonel Colt much more 
successful in his earlier attempts to bring his Revolver 
into public notice. He obtained his first patent in 

* Book of Ecclesiastes i. 10. 



REVOLVERS AND MINIE RIFLES. 267 

America in 1835, and establislied a manufactory for 
the pistols at Paterson, United States, where he ex- 
pended £35,000 in attempting to bring the fire-arm 
to perfection, bnt with no beneficial result to himself 
beyond gaining costly experience. He made further 
improvements in 1849, and so far perfected the 
weapon that it had been used extensively in America 
before it was brought into notice in this country. 

When Colonel Colt came to England, he under- 
took to investigate the origin of repeating fire-arms, 
with a view to ascertain how far he had been antici- 
pated ; and the result of his researches was, that re- 
peating fire-arms, similar in principle to his own 
Revolver, had been invented ^/6>i^^^' centuries hefore. 

He found in the Armoury of the Tower of London 
a matchlock gun, supposed to have been made as 
early as the fifteenth century, which very closely re- 
sembles, in the principle of its construction, the Re- 
volver of the present day. It has a revolving breech 
with four chambers, mounted on an axis fixed parallel 
to the barrel, and on that axis it may be turned 
round, to bring any one of the four loaded chambers 
in succession in a line with the barrel, to be dis- 
charged through it. There are notches in a fiange at 
the fore end of the revolving breech to receive the 
end of a spring, which is fixed to the stock of the gun, 
for the purpose of locking the breech when a chamber 
is brought round into the proper position. The ham- 
mer is split at the end, so as to clasp a match, and to 
carry its ignited end down to the priming powder 
when the trigger is pulled. Each chamber is pro- 



268 GREAT FACTS. 

vided with a priming pan that is covered by a swing 
lid, and, before firing, the lid is pushed aside by the 
finger, to expose the priming powder to the action of 
the lighted match. If the date of this gun be cor- 
rectly stated, a very rapid advance in the art of gun- 
nery must have been made after the invention of gun- 
powder, which took place only one hundred years 
previously. The want of a better mode of discliarg- 
ing the gun than a lighted match was one of the chief 
obstacles to the introduction of the Revolver four cen- 
turies ago. 

There is also in the Tower Armoury a specimen 
of a repeating fire-arm of a more recent date, though 
still very ancient, that presents considerable improve- 
ment on the preceding one. It has six chambers in 
the rotating breech, and is furnished with a barytes 
lock and one priming pan, to fire all the chambers. 
The priming pan is fitted with a sliding cover, and a 
vertical wheel with a serrated edge projects into it, 
nearly in contact with the powder in the pan. To 
this wheel a rapid motion is given by means of a 
trigger-spring, acting upon a lever attached to the 
axis of the wheel ; and the teeth of the wheel strike 
against the barytes, which is brought down, previously 
to firing, into contact with it, and the sparks thus 
emitted set fire to the powder in tbe priming pan, 
and discharge the piece. In this instance, also, the 
breech is rotated by hand. 

A still further advance towards perfection in re- 
peating fire-arms is to be seen in the United Service 
Museum, where there is a pistol, supposed to have 



REVOLVERS AND MINIE RIFLES. 269 

been madq in the time of Charles I., with the breech 
rotated by mechanical means. In this pistol, the act 
of pulling back the hammer turns the breech, con- 
taining six chambers, one-sixth part of a revolution, 
and the priming powder is ignited by a flint hammer 
striking against steel. 

The manufacture of these fire-arms presented some 
practical difliculties which could only be overcome 
by great care and skill in the construction ; and from 
the failure in this respect they were not patronized. 
It was necessary, in the first place, that the loaded 
chambers should be brought into an exact line with 
the barrel, and be firmly retained there during the 
discharge. It also required great nicety in the fitting 
of the breech to the barrel, to prevent the fire from 
communicating to the other chambers. A further 
diflficulty was to prevent the spindle, whereon the 
breech revolved, from becoming foul by the explosion 
of the powder ; otherwise, after firing a few times it 
would stick fast, and the gun would become useless. 

The earliest patent for repeating fire-arms in this 
country was obtained by James Puckle, in 1718, for 
a gun with a rotating breech. There were six cham- 
bers in the breech, which was turned round by a 
winch, and, when the six were fired, there was an ar- 
rangement by which the chambered breech could be 
removed, and another loaded one substituted for it. 
Mr. Puckle appears to have been of a poetical turn 
of mind, and the specification of his patent is enlivened 
by the following loyal couplet, which deserves to be 
quoted as a novelty in patent records : — 



270 GREAT FACTS. 

" Defending King George, our country and laws, 
Is defending yourselves and the Protestant cause." 

The invention of percnssion priming in 1800, by 
the Kev. A. J. Forsyth, was an important step towards 
the perfection of fire-arms generally, and of Revolvers 
in particular ; for until the chambered breech could 
carry round with it in a compact form the priming 
for each chamber, the construction must have been 
clumsy, and the action uncertain. 

Colonel Colt, as already stated, took out his first 
patent in 1835, and in 1849 he patented the improved 
Revolver, which he has brought into general use. It 
has six chambers in the rotating breech, and the nip- 
ples to hold the percussion caps are sunk into a recess, 
so that the lateral fire, if any, cannot reach them ; and 
at the other end, the chambers are protected from 
lateral fire by chamfering their mouths. By these 
means, the danger of firing the gunpowder in the 
other chambers is eff'ectually provided against. 

The demand for Colt's Revolvers became so great 
after the last improvements were made, that at his 
manufactory, at Hartford, in America, he made 53,000 
of them in 1853 ; and at his manufactory at Vauxhall, 
near London, he employs upwards of 300 workmen, 
though by far the largest portion of the work is done 
by machinery. 

Several improvements have been introduced in 
Revolvers since Mr. Colt's patent of 1849, among 
which is the arrangement, made by Mr. Adams in 
1851, for causing the chambered breech to turn by 
the action of pulling the trigger, which at the same 



REVOLVERS AND MINIE RIFLES. 



271 



time draws back the hammer. By this arrangement, 
the whole of the six loaded chambers may be dis- 
charged in three seconds, whilst the pistol continues 
presented. 

The latest improvements in Revolvers were con- 
trived by Mr. Josiah Ells, of Pittsburg, ]^orth Ameri- 
ca, as specified in a patent obtained for him by the 
author, in his own name, in 1855. The annexed 
woodcuts show the figure of this Revolver, with the 




working parts round the lock exposed to view, to- 
gether with the shape of the revolving chambered 
breech. 

In this improved Revolver, the force required to 
pull back the hammer, a^ is regulated by a double 



272 GREAT FACTS. 

spring, w^ so as to diminish as the hammer is drawn 
back ; and at the moment of firing a slight pull of the 
trigger is suflBcient. Another improvement consists 
in the addition to the chambered breech, d^ of a pro- 
jecting tube, which prevents the spindle on which it 
turns from becoming foul; and there is also a safety- 
bolt added, as a protection against accidental firing. 

The plan of making the mere action of drawing 
the trigger turn the chambered breech and pull back 
the hammer, as originally contrived by Mr. Adams, 
required so much force to pull the trigger as to inter- 
fere materially with the accuracy of aim. There 
was danger, also, in that mode of turning the cham- 
bered breech, arising from premature firing. In Mr. 
EUs's Revolver these objections are in a great 
measure obviated ; first, by the action of the double 
spring, by which the force required is diminished as 
the trigger is pulled farther back ; and in the second 
place, by making the shoulder of the hammer catch 
into a small notch, which holds it at full cock, until, 
by a further pull of the trigger, the pistol is fired. 

An improvement in the art of war, no less im- 
portant than the Revolver, was introduced nearly at 
the same time. The Revolver afifords a formidable 
means for attack or defence at short distances, whilst 
the Minie Rifle extends the destructive range of fire- 
arms far beyond the distance to which the ordinary 
musket ball could reach. The principle of rifling gun 
barrels was first made known in the specification of 
an invention patented in 1789, by Mr. Wilkinson, the 
improvement he effected being thus described : — 



REVOLVERS AND MINIE RIFLES. 273 

^' The gun, or piece of ordnance, after being bored in 
the usual method, hath cut therein two spiral grooves, 
which run the whole length of the bore. These 
curves, according to their curvature, will give a cir- 
cular motion to the shot during its flight." 

The spiral grooves, when the bullets are rammed 
down, cause the ball to offer greater resistance, there- 
fore the explosive force of the gunpowder is brought 
to act upon them more completely before they leave 
the gun barrel ; and the rotary motion imparts greater 
steadiness to the ball. Rifled barrels, therefore, carry 
the balls farther, and increase the accuracy of the 
aim. They, however, require increased power and 
longer time to ram down the ball in loading, and the 
risk of bursting the gun is increased if the ball be not 
rammed close upon the powder. For these reasons, 
they were considered unfit to be employed generally 
by soldiers, and they were entrusted only to select 
corps of riflle shooters. The object of Captain Minie's 
invention was to facilitate the loading of rifles, by 
contriving a bullet which might be easily rammed in, 
and would expand in the act of firing, so as to fill up 
the grooves. What is commonly called the Minie 
Rifle is, in fact, only a Minie Rifle Ball, for the 
barrels of the guns are nearly the same as the 
ordinary grooved rifles. 

The ball is an elongated one, with a hollow cone 
at the bottom, into which is fixed an iron button. 
When the gun is fired, the button is forced into the 
cone, and expands the lead, which thus fills up the 
grooves and gives a spiral direction to the bullet. 
12* 



274 GREAT FACTS. 

The Millie ball serves the purpose excellently for a 
short time, but after firing several rounds the iron 
button is forced through the lead, leaving a portion 
of it behind, which clogs up the barrel, and renders it 
unfit for use. 

Several substitutes for iron were tried, to remove 
that inconvenience, and it was at length found that 
the button might be dispensed with altogether, for 
the hollow cone is of itself sufiicient to expand the 
lead. The balls are, therefore, now made m that 
manner at the Government gun manufactory at En- 
field, and the rified guns now used in the army, 
which carry bullets to the distance of a mile and 
more, are called the Enfield Rifle. The cost of each 
of these rifies to the Government is stated to be £3 
4s. 7|d. As the balls are made to slip into the bar- 
rels easily, they can be loaded as readily as the com- 
mon musket : and they will carry three times the 
distance, with much more certainty. 



CENTEIFUGAL PUMPS. 

Many ingenious men have vainly attempted to 
apply what has been erroneously called " centrifugal 
force " as a motive power, conceiving that the effort 
made by bodies to fly off when whirled round in a 
circle was occasioned by a force generated by their 
rotation. The experiment of the '' whirling table," 
which is commonly shown to illustrate centrifugal 
action, tends to confirm the notion that force is gene- 
rated ; for it is there seen that, when the velocity of 
rotation is doubled, the centrifugal force is quadru- 
pled, and that it continues to increase in a geomet- 
rical ratio. It has, therefore, been conceived that a 
power might be generated of indefinite amount ; for 
as a double velocity can be communicated by doub- 
ling the moving power, whilst the tendency to fly off 
at the circumference is quadrupled, there appeared to 
be a creation of power which, if properly applied, 
would realize perpetual motion. 

A working engineer known to the author was so 
fully possessed with the notion that power might thus 
be created, and that its application would be of the 
utmost benefit, that he imagined he had been specially 



2*76 GREAT FACTS. 

appointed to reveal tlie principle to man, as a boon 
of inestimable value to the manufacturing arts. The 
plan he adopted was to employ what he called a 
generating engine, consisting of a centrifugal pump . 
and the force with which the water was projected 
from the ends of two rotating horizontal arms was 
directed against pistons working in cylinders, as the 
force of steam is in a steam engine. Having once 
set this ma(?hine in action, he expected to be able, by 
means of the self-creating centrifugal force, to gener- 
ate the power that worked the generating engine, 
and thus to have a reservoir of force of any magni- 
tude constantly at command. So completely satisfied 
was he of the practicability of the plan, founded, as 
he supposed, upon one of ISTewton's laws of motion, 
and he felt so happy in the thought of being charged 
with an important mission for the benefit of mankind, 
that it was almost cruel to attempt to correct his no- 
tions of the power of centrifugal force. He spent all 
his money in endeavouring to realize this impossible 
project, and even its failure did not convince him of 
his error. 

The simple kind of Centrifugal Pump applied in 
that chimerical scheme was known upwards of one 
hundred years ago. It consisted of a vertical hollow 
shaft, into which were inserted two horizontal arms. 
The shaft was supported on a pivot at the bottom, and 
was turned by a handle at the top, as represented in 
the accompanjdng drawing. The lower end of the 
vertical shaft was immersed in water, and when 
rotary motion was given to the machine, the centri- 



CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS. 



277 



fugal action propelled the water from the ends of the 
arms, and the water rose in the vertical shaft to sup- 
ply its place. 

The effect in a pnmp of this constrnction is due 
to the pressure of the atmosphere, for the outpouring 
of the water from the rotating arms tends to produce 
a vacuum in the shaft, in the same manner as the 
lifting of the plunger in a common pump. It is 




evident, therefore, that a Centrifugal Pump of that 
construction could not raise a column of water higher 
than the pressure of the atmosphere would force it 
up, which would be about thirty feet. 

Mr. Appold's Centrifugal Pump, which consti- 



278 



GREAT FACTS. 



tuted one of the most remarkable features of the 
Machinery Department of the Great Exhibition, is 
constructed on a different plan, though the principle 
is the same. The rotating arms are immersed in the 
water to be raised, and to diminish the resistance 
which would be produced by the rotation in water of 




two or more exposed arms, they are enclosed within 
discs of metal, about one foot in diameter, and three 
or four inches apart. The arms are formed by curved 
partitions between the discs, which radiate from the 
centre to the outer rim, towards which the space be- 



CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS. 279 

tween the discs is contracted. This pump is fixed on 
an axis, to which rapid rotary motion can be given ; 
and it is fitted into a case connected with the pipe 
that conveys the water to the discharging orifice. 
The water enters the rotating disc through a large 
aperture in the centre, and it is forced through the 
spaces formed by the radical arms with increasing 
velocity, until it escapes from the circumference. 
Sections of Mr. Appold's pump are shown in the ac- 
companying diagrams, in which A is the central 
opening for the admission of water ; C, C, C, the 
curved radical partitions which form the arms by 
which motion is communicated to the water, and 
through the ends of which it issues into the external 
case, connected with the lift-pipe, D. 

In the Great Exhibition there were two other 
Centrifugal Pumps shown in action, one by Mr. Bes- 
semer, and one by Mr. Gwynnc, from America ; but 
neither of them exhibited such striking efifects as Mr. 
Appold's, which was so arranged as to throw out a 
continuous cascade of water from an aperture six feet 
wide, at a height of twenty-six feet. The Jury of 
Class Y., who made numerous experiments to deter- 
mine the practical efficiency of Centrifugal Pumps, 
and the relative merits of the three exhibited, report- 
ed very favourably of that of Mr. Appold, to whom a 
Council Medal was awarded. "When rotating at the 
rate of Y88 revolutions in a minute, and lifting the 
water 194 feet, the greatest practical effect, compared 
with the power employed, was attained. The dis- 
charge of water per minute at that height, with the 



280 GREAT FACTS. 

pump rotating with a velocity of 788 revolutions, was 
1,236 gallons ; and with a lift of 8 feet, 2,100 gallons 
per minute were discharged, when the rotating 
velocity was 828 revolutions per minute. In Mr. 
Gwynne's and Mr. Bessemer's pumps, which had 
straight vanes, the ratio of power to the effect did not 
exceed 0*19. One of Mr. Appold's pumps, only one 
inch in diameter (the exact size of the small diagram), 
will discharge ten gallons per minute. The greatest 
height to which water has been raised by the pumps 
that are one foot in diameter is 67*7 feet, with a 
volocity of 4,153 feet per minute. 

The velocity with which the pump should revolve 
depends upon the height to which the water is to be 
raised. Bej^ond a certain height, the required ve- 
locity is practically unattainable, but long before tliat 
limit is reached the waste of power becomes so great, 
that the pump is of no value, for the pressure on the 
circumference counteracts the force with which the 
water is expelled. It is, therefore, only at compara- 
tively low levels that the Centrifugal Pump is a use- 
ful engine. The absence of all valves renders it very 
suitable for draining marshes, and for other similar 
purposes, as the muddy water and suspended matters 
will not obstruct its action. 

In the Eeport of the Jury the influence of the 
curved shape of the radial arms is considered very 
important in producing the effects. " If the vanes 
be straight," the Report observes, "it is evident, that 
whatever may be the velocity of the water in the 
direction of a radius, when it leaves the wheel its ve- 



CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS. 281 

locity in the direction of a tangent will be that of the 
circumference of the wheel, so that the greater the 
velocity of the wlieel the greater will be the amount 
of vis viva remaining in the water when discharged, 
and the greater the amount of power uselessly ex- 
pended to create that vis viva. If, however, the vanes 
be curved backwards as regards the motion of the 
wheel, so as to have nearly the direction of a tangent 
to the circumference of the wheel at the points where 
they intersect it, the velocity due to the centrifugal 
force of the water carrying over the surface of the 
vane in the opposite direction to that in which the 
wheel is moving, and nearly in the direction of a tan- 
gent to the circumference, will — if this velocity of the 
water over the vane in the one direction be equal to 
that in which the vane is itself moving in the other — 
produce a state of absolute rest in the water, and 
entire exhaustion of vis viva.^^ It is an interesting 
fact in the history of the inventioUj that the curved 
form was formerly adopted in some of the American 
pumps, and afterwards abandoned. 

There are competing claims to the invention of 
Centrifugal Pumps in the form now adopted. This 
kind of pump is stated to have been used in America 
in 1830. M. Charles Combe took out a patent in 
France for a similar pump in 1838 ; but though Mr. 
Appold was later in the field with his more perfect 
machine, he appears to have proceeded independently 
of previous inventors. 



TUBULAE BEIDGES. 

ITo sooner had the formation of railways com- 
menced for carrying passengers in long trains of car- 
riages drawn by heavy locomotive engines, than the 
want was experienced of some different kind of bridge 
from any then existing for crossing rivers, roads, and 
valleys. The train could not be tm-ned sharply round 
a curve to cross a road at right angles ; and to make 
the requisite bend to enable it to do so would have 
taken the railway considerably out of its direct course. 
To overcome this difficulty "skew bridges" were de- 
signed, that crossed roads and canals in slanting di- 
rections. Iron girder bridges were also constructed, 
and thus the railway trains were carried across roads 
and narrow rivers at any required inclination, sup- 
ported on flat beams of iron. Suspension bridges 
were found to be unfitted, on account of their oscil- 
lation, for the passage of locomotive engines ; there- 
fore, when it became necessary to carry railways 
across arms of the sea, or wide navigable rivers, at 
heights sufficient to allow the largest ships to pass 
underneath, neither girder bridges nor suspension 
bridges were suited for the purpose. Then arose the 
necessity of contriving some form of bridge of exten- 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 283 

sive span that would be sufficiently strong and rigid 
for railway trains to pass over them in safety. 

, The Britannia Bridge, across the Menai Straits, 
was a triumphant response to the call for a new kind 
of suspended roadway adapted to the requirements of 
railways. The tubular principle of construction, de- 
signed by Mr. Robert Stephenson, was practically 
tested by Mr. Fairbairn ; and the result of numerous 
experiments on the strength of iron, in different forms 
and combinations, established the soundness of that 
principle. The rigidity and strength of the Britannia 
Bridge depend on cellular cavities at the top and 
bottom, which, acting as so many tubes, give stability 
to the riveted plates of iron, and enable the bridge to 
bear the immense pressure and vibration of a heavy 
railway train without deflecting more than half an 
inch. 

It was Mr. Stephenson's original intention to make 
a circular or oval tube, suspended by chains, for the 
trains to run through ; but Mr. Fairbairn's experi- 
ments proved that a rectangular shape is stronger, 
provided the top and bottom, which bear the greatest 
part of the strain, are made rigid, either by additional 
plates of iron, or by tubes. The notion of a circular 
tube was, therefore, abandoned, and the rectangular 
form, with cells at the top and bottom, w^as adopted ; 
first for the railway bridge at Conway, and afterwards 
for the much greater w^ork across the Menai Straits. 

It has been stated by Mr. Stephenson, that the 
idea of forming a tubular bridge was suggested by 
experience gained in constructing the railway bridge 



284 GEEAT FACTS. 

at Ware, which consisted of a wrought-iron cellular 
platform ; but a more exact representation of the prin- 
ciple on which the Britannia Bridge is constructed 
had been long previously seen across the Rhine, at 
Schauffhausen, where a rectangular tube, or hollow 
girder, made of wood, was erected in 1757. That 
bridge, though of different material, was in its prin- 
ciple of construction similar to the iron tubular 
bridges at Conway and at the Menai Straits. Ano- 
ther similar bridge, carried over the river Limmat, at 
Wettingen, constructed in 1778", had a span of 390 
feet ; and that, as well as the former, was raised to 
its position in one piece, by means of powerful screw- 
jaws. These curious and interesting structures, 
which may be considered the forerunners of the 
gigantic iron Tubular Bridges of the present day, 
were burnt by the French in 1799. 

In constructing the Britannia Bridge, Mr. Stephen- 
son took advantage of a rock midway from shore to 
shore, whereon to erect the central pier. Two other 
piers, at a distance, on each side, of 460 feet, were 
built without much difficulty in shallower water, and 
between these and the masonry on each side was a 
distance of 230 feet. There are eight rectangular 
tubes resting on those piers, to form two lines of rail- 
way, each tube being 28 feet high and 14 feet wide, 
exclusive of the cellular cavities at the top and bot- 
tom. These cavities are rectangular, and extend 
from one end of the bridge to the other, and may be 
regarded as long tubes. There are eight of them at 
the top, each 1 foot 9 inches square, and there are six 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 285 

at the bottom, the latter being 2 feet 4 inches wide, 
and the same depth as those at the top. Sound is 
conveyed through these cavities as readily as through 
speaking tubes, and conversation can be thus easily 
carried on across the Straits. 

The height of the central pier of the Britannia 
Bridge, from the foundation to the top, is 230 feet ; 
and the height of the roadway above high water 
mark is 104 feet. The length of the large tubes, 
through which the railway carriages pass, on each 
side of the central pier, is 460 feet : and the total 
length from shore to shore, 1,531 feet. The tubes 
are connected together at the piers to give the bridge 
additional' strength, and they are composed altogether 
of 186,000 separate pieces of iron, which were pierced 
with seven millions of holes, and united together by 
upwards of two millions of rivets. The whole mass 
of iron employed weighed 10,540 tons. 

The Britannia Bridge was commenced in May, 
1846, and the first of the main tubes was completed 
in June, 1849. The work was carried on close to the 
bridge, on the Anglesea shore ; and when the tube 
was ready to be transported to its place on the piers, 
which had been prepared to receive it, eight flat- 
bottomed pontoons were provided to carry it, which, 
being brought underneath, floated the ponderous 
mass on the water as they rose with the tide. 

The floating and fixing in its place of the tube 
took place on the 27th of the same month, in view 
of an immense concourse of spectators. After the 
preliminary arrangements for letting go had been 



286 GREAT FACTS. 

completed, Mr. Stephenson, and other engineers, got 
on the tube, with Captain Olaxton, R. N., to whom 
the management of the floating was entrusted. A 
correspondent of the Illustrated London News thus 
describes the proceeding, and its successful result : — 
^' Captain Claxton was easily distinguished by his 
speaking trumpet, and there were also men to hold 
the letters which indicated the different capstans, so 
that no mistake could occur as to which capstan 
should be worked ; and flags, red, blue, and white, 
signified what particular movement should be made. 
About 7.30 p.m. the first perceptible motion, which 
indicated that the tide was lifting the mass, was ob- 
served, and at Mr. Stephenson's desire, the d'epth 
of water was ascertained, and the exact time noted. 
In a few minutes the motion was plainly visible, the 
tube being fairly moved forward some inches. This 
moment was one of intense interest, the huge bulk 
gliding as gently and easily forward as if she had 
been but a small boat. The spectators seemed spell- 
bound, for no shouts or exclamations were heard, as 
all watched anxiously the silent course of the heavily 
freighted pontoons. The only sounds heard were the 
shouts of Captain Claxton, as he gave directions to 
' let go ropes,' to ' haul in faster,' &c. ; and ' broad- 
side on,' the tube floated majestically in the centre 
of the stream. I then left my station, and ran to the 
entrance of the works, where I got into a boat, and 
bade the men pull out as far as they could into the 
middle of the Straits. This was no easy task, the tide 
running strong ; but it afforded me several splendid 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 287 

views of the jloating mass, and one was especially- 
fine ; the tube coming direct on through the stream 
— the distant hills covered with trees, two or three 
small vessels and a steamer, its smoke blending w^ell 
with the scene, forming a capital background ; whilst 
on one side, in long stretching perspective, stood the 
three unfinished tubes, destined ere long to form, 
with the one then speeding on its journey, one grand 
and unique roadway. It was impossible to see this 
grand and imposing sight, and not to feel its single- 
ness, if we may so speak. Anything so mighty of its 
kind had never been before : again it would assuredly 
be ; but it was like the first voyage made by the first 
steam-vessl — something until then unique. At 8.35 
the tube was nearing the Anglesea pier, and at this 
moment the expectation of the spectators was greatly 
increased, as the tube was so near its destination : 
and soon all fears were dispelled, as the Anglesea 
end of the tube passed beyond the pier, and then the 
Britannia pier end neared its appointed spot, and it 
was instantly drawn back close to the recess, so as to 
rest on the bearing intended for it. There was then 
a pause for a few minutes, while waiting for the tide 
to turn : and when that took place, the huge bulk 
floated gently into its place on the Anglesea pier, 
rested on the bearing there, and was instantly made 
fast, so that it could not move again. The cheering, 
till now subdued, was loud and hearty, and some 
pieces of cannon on the shore gave token, by their 
loud booming, that the great task of the day was 
done." 



288 GREAT FACTS. 

The tube, when in position, was lowered down 
upon its bearings on the pier by opening valves in 
the pontoons, which thus sunk sufficiently to ease 
them of their load. 

The work of raising the tube to its position, 100 
feet above high water mark, was a much slower 
operation, and was attended with serious difficulties. 
Hydraulic presses were used for the purpose, placed 
at the top of the piers ; two smaller ones, which had 
served to raise the Conway Bridge, being at one end, 
and a much larger press, made for the occasion, being 
fixed at the other. The immense tube was lifted by 
chains fixed to the heads of the presses, and two steam 
engines, of 4:0-horse power each, were employed to 
force the water into the cylinders. The diameter of 
the ram of the largest. hydraulic press was 20 inches, 
and the pressure upon it was equal to 2J tons on each 
circular inch. The tube was raised by successive lifts 
of 6 feet each, and, as it was lifted, the space was 
built in with masonry for its ultimate bearing. Dur- 
ing the operation of lifting, the bottom of the cylinder 
of the large hydraulic press burst out, and fell on the 
top of the tube, in which it made a considerable in- 
dentation. Mr. Stephenson had provided against the 
possibility of such accident, by having blocks of wood, 
an inch thick, introduced under the tube as it was 
elevated, and these blocks arrested its fall, or it would 
otherwise have been dashed to pieces. Even the 
small fall of an inch did considerable injury. This 
accident caused some delay, but the other tubes were 
in the meantime progressing, and the completed bridge 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 289 

was opened for public traffic on the 21st of October, 
1850. 

The strength of the bridge was tested before pas- 
senger trains were allowed to pass through it, by 
placing in the centre of the longest tubes twenty -eight 
waggons, loaded with 280 tons of coal, and two loco- 
motives, and by afterwards sending those heavy trains 
through the bridge at full speed. The deflection of 
the tubes in the centre amounted to only three-quar- 
ters of an inch in each cell ; it being rather less when 
the trains were at full speed than when stationary. 
The strongest gusts of wind to which the bridge has 
been exposed have not caused a vibration of more 
than one inch. The total cost of construction was 
£601,865 ; of which sum £3,986 was for experiments, 
and £158,704 for masonry. 

Another Tubular Bridge of rival magnitude to the 
one across the Menai Straits is now in the course of 
construction by Mr. Brunei across the Tamar, at 
Saltash, for the South Devon and Cornwall Railway. 
As no rock presented itself conveniently halfway 
across whereon to erect the central pier, Mr. Brunei 
was obliged to work at a great depth below the surface 
of the water in making the foundation of the Eoyal 
Albert Bridge. In the plan of making the founda- 
tion, as well as in the structure of the bridge itself, 
Mr. Brunei adopted a course altogether original. In- 
stead of attempting to construct a coff'er-dam by piles, 
which would have been almost impracticable at such 
a depth, and very costly, he caused a large iron tube 
to be put together, thirty-six feet in diameter, and 
13 



290 GREAT FACTS. 

ninetj-six feet long, to reach to the bed of the river. 
This monster tube was lowered perpendicidarly in the 
middle of the river, and the water being pumped out 
of it, the men could work at the bottom in safety. In 
this manner, after much labour, the rock was pre- 
pared to receive the blocks of granite, which were 
laid one on the otlier, till they rose above the surface 
of the water. On that granite pedestal a cast-iron 
pier was raised to a height of 100 feet, the level of 
the roadway of the rails. 

The cast-iron pier consists of four octagon columns, 
10 feet in diameter. They stand about 10 feet apart, 
forming a square, and they are bound together by 
massive lattice-work of wrought iron, to prevent any 
lateral movement. Each of these columns weio-hs 
150 tons ; and when the full weight of the bridge 
rests on the foundation of the central pier, the pressure 
will be equal to 8 tons on the square foot, or double 
the pressure of the Victoria Tower on its base. 

In the structure of the bridge, Mr. Brunei availed 
himself of the results of the experiments made by Mr. 
Fairbairn on the strength of iron tubes, but he adopted 
a very different plan from that of Mr. Stephenson. 
Instead of constructino; a laro-e tube for the trains to 
pass through, Mr. Brunei made tubular arches, con- 
sisting of iron plates curved and riveted together, to 
serve as rigid supports, from which the roadway is 
suspended by chains and by connecting iron bars. 

The placing of the first of the tubular arches in 
position between the pier near the shore at Saltash 
and the central pier, which took place on the 1st of 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 291 

September, 1857, excited great interest, and at least 
50,000 persons were assembled from places far and 
near to witness the operation. The tube, with the 
roadway and suspension chains, was floated from the 
yard where it was put together on four pontoons ; and 
it was thus conveyed, and safely deposited on the 
piers at a height of 30 feet above high water mark. 
It was afterwards gradually raised by hydraulic presses 
to the top, a height of 100 feet. The work of raising 
it commenced on the 25th of November, and was 
completed on the 19th of May last. 

The following lively description of the Eoyal 
Albert Bridge, and its surrounding scenery, extracted 
from a recent article in the Times^ gives a very good 
idea of the magnitude of the structure, by comparison 
with well-known objects: — ''Though, probably, our 
readers may care little and have heard less about 
Saltash proper, it is likely henceforth to receive a fair 
share of general attention, and we can safely say, to 
those who will journey down to see the bridge, that 
the viaduct requires indeed to be a fine one to attract 
their attention from the lovely scenery of the valley 
of the Tamar, which it crosses. The banks of this 
noble river narrow in considerably as the stream 
reaches Saltash, and, hemmed in there to half a mile 
or so, suddenly widens out into as fine a sheet of water 
as any of its kind in the kingdom, its distant banks 
covered with cottages, and fringed with undulating 
woodlands down to the very edge. Across this nar- 
row part of the channel, where Saltash, in picturesque 
dirt and disarray, straggles up the banks on one side, 



292 GREAT FACTS. 

and a steep hill, covered with rock and rock-grown 
underwood, forms the other, the viaduct stretches 
high in air. The briefest general way of describing 
it is to say that it consists of nineteen spans or arches, 
seventeen of wliich are wider than the widest arches of 
Westminster Bridge ; and two, resting on a single 
cast-iron pier of four columns in the centre of the 
river, span the whole stream at one gigantic leap of 
910 feet, or a longer distance than the breadth of the 
Thames at Westminster. The total length of the 
structure from end to end is 2,240 feet, — very nearly 
half a mile, and 300 feet longer than the entire stretch 
of the Britannia Bridge. The greatest width is only 
30 feet at basement ; its greatest height from foun- 
dation to summit no less than 260 feet, or 50 feet 
higher than the summit of the Monument. The 
Britannia Bridge, both in size, purpose, and engineer- 
ing importance, seems to offer the best comparison 
with that of Saltash, but the similarity between the 
structures is far from being as great as might be at 
first supposed. The Britannia tube is smaller, and 
cost nearly four times the price of the Saltash Viaduct, 
though the engineers had natural facilities w^iich Mr. 
Brunei, for his Cornish bridge, certainly had not." 

The form of the tubes is an oval, 17 feet in its 
longest diameter, and 12 feet in its shortest. They 
are bent into an elliptical curve, with a rise in the 
middle of twenty-eight feet. With the roadway and 
suspension chains attached, each tube weighs 1,100 
tons. The total weight of wrought iron in the bridge, 
when completed, will be 2,650 tons; of cast iron. 



TUBULAR BRIDGES. 293 

1,200 ; of masonry and brick\\ ork there will be about 
17,000 cubic yards; and of timber, about 14,000 
cubic feet. 

The second tube, which is in every respect like the 
first, was completed on the 30th of June last, and on 
the 10th of July was successfully placed in position 
between the central pier and the Devonshire side of 
the river. The operation of elevating it began on the 
9th of August, and it has now reached nearly the 
level of the first one, the tube being raised six feet in 
a week. 

The engraving on the other side is a view of this 
wonderful structure in its completed form. Its ap- 
pearance is far more light and elegant than that of the 
Britannia Bridge, but it remains to be seen whether 
it will be equally steady under a gale of wind, and 
w^hether any vibration of the suspended roadway will 
interfere with the rapid motion of the trains. As the 
South Devon Railway has only one line of rails for 
the greater portion of its length, but a single roadway 
is provided on the Royal Albert Bridge. 

The progress of railway locomotion has not only 
given rise to the construction of new kinds of bridges, 
but it has directed mechanical science to devise better 
means of applying the strength of materials. On the 
South Devon and Cornwall Railways are to be seen 
wooden viaducts, carrying the line over valleys at 
great heights, constructed with such slender timbers, 
that, to an inexperienced eye, they seem frightfully 
frail for the support of heavy railway trains. 

We must not omit to notice, among the remarkable 



294 



GREAT FACTS. 






TUBULAll BKIDGES. 2?5 

bridge erections connected with railways, the viadnct 
across the valley of the Boyne, which passes over the 
river close to the town of Drogheda, at a height of 95 
feet. The central portion of the viaduct is supported 
on four piers, 90 feet above high water mark, with a 
span in the centre of 250 feet, and on each side of 125 
feet. This elevated portion of the work is approached 
on the southern side by twelve arches, of 60 feet span 
each, and on the north by three similar arches. The 
viaduct is constructed of limestone and iron lattice- 
work, and is calculated to bear 7,200 tons. 

During the erection of this viaduct the railway 
trains were carried over the valley on a wooden plat- 
form, without side railings, supported by scaffold- 
poles ; and the crackling of the timbers, as the car- 
riages passed over it, and the dizzy height at which 
they w^ere carried through the air, produced a sensa- 
tion of terror in nervous passengers, that was fully 
justified by the apparent danger. 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 

The manufacturing progress of this country has 
depended, in a great degree, on the facility possessed 
of making machinery of all kinds by the aid of power- 
ful engines worked by steam power. These engines, 
most of which appear to be self-acting, forge and roll 
and cut and bore beams of iron, boiler plates, and 
cylinders of immense size, which it would be impos- 
sible to make by hand ; and they do the work with a 
rapidity and mechanical accuracy that would be 
otherwise unattainable. In the progress of manufac- 
turing invention, the small steam engine first made by 
manual labour created the power to make other steam 
engines of large size ; and those more powerful en- 
gines supplied the means of making still larger shafts 
and cylinders for engines that were to be employed in 
the construction of machines of various kinds, to be 
worked by the power thus accumulated. 

The important advantages derived from the inven- 
tion and application of self-acting machinery, not only 
by the community at large, but even by the workmen 
whose labour they for a time superseded, were forcibly 
stated by Mr. Whitworth, in his opening address at 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 297 

the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in September, 
1856: — "I congratulate you," he observed, "on the 
success which in our time the mechanical arts have 
obtained, an.d the high consideration in which they 
are held. Inventors are not now persecuted, as for- 
merly, by those who fancied that their inventions and 
discoveries were prejudicial to the general interest, 
and calculated to deprive labour of its fair reward. 
Some of us are old enough to remember the hostility 
manifested to the working of the power-loom, the 
self-acting mule, the machinery for shearing woollen 
cloth, the thrashing machine, and many others. Now 
the introduction of reaping and mowing machines, 
and other improved agricultural machinery, is not 
opposed. Indeed, it must be obvious, to reflecting 
minds, that tlie increased luxuries and comforts which 
all more or less enjoy, are derived from the numerous 
recent mechanical appliances and the productions of 
our manufactories. That of our cotton has increased 
during the last few years in a wonderful degree. In 
1824, a gentleman with whom I am acquainted sold 
on one occasion 100,000 pieces of T4-reed printing 
cloth at 30s. 6d. per piece of 29 yards long ; the same 
description of cloth he sold last week at 3s. 9d. One 
of the most striking instances I know of the vast supe- 
riority of machinery over simple instruments used by 
hand, is in the manufacture of lace, when one man, 
with a machine, does the work of 8,000 lace makers 
on the cushion. In spinning fine numbers of yarn, a 
workman in a self-acting mule will do the work of 
3,000 hand-spinners with the distaff and spindle. 



298 GKEAT FACTS. 

'' Comparatively few persons, perhaps, are aware 
of the increase of production in our life-time. Thirty 
years ago, the cost of labour for turning a siirface of 
cast iron, by chipping and tiling with the hand, was 
12s. per square foot — the same work is now done by 
the planing machine at a cost for labour of less than 
one penny per square foot : and this, as you know, is 
one of the most important operations in mechanics ; it 
is, therefore, w^ell adapted to illustrate what our pro- 
gress has been. At the same time that this increased 
production is taking place, the fixed capital of the 
country is, as a necessary consequence, augmented ; 
for in the case I have mentioned, of chipping and fil- 
ing by the hand, when the cost of labour was 12s. per 
foot, the capital required for tools for one workman 
was only a few shillings ; but now, the labour being 
lowered to a penny per foot, a capital in planing 
machines for the workman is required w^hich often 
amounts to £500, and in some cases more." 

Notwithstanding the great economy of labour by 
the self-acting machines now employed for doing all 
kinds of w^ork, it is gratifying to find that it has not 
had the efi*ect of throwing men out of employ ; for the 
increased demand, consequent on the facility of pro- 
duction, has more than compensated for the substitu- 
tion of automaton mechanism for handicraft. 

It is extremely interesting to visit a large engi- 
neering factory, and to witness the ease with which the 
masses of crude metal are wrought in various ways, 
and converted by a number of seemingly self-acting 
engines into other engines and machines which are, 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 299 

in their turn, to become the agents of the further de- 
velopment of the skill and ingenuity of man. In the 
new Government factory at Keyham, near Devon- 
port, which we believe to be one of the largest estab- 
lishments of the kind in the world, most of those 
powerful engines of the best construction may be seen 
in operation. The completeness of the arrangements 
redounds much to the credit of Mr. Trickett, the chief 
engineer, under whose supervision they were made ; 
and a walk through the factory, which is thrown open 
to public inspection, will well repay a journey of 
many miles. A detailed description of all its ma- 
chinery would fill a volume, but we must now limit 
ourselves to a bare enumeration of some of the most 
remarkable features. 

Numerous machines of the largest size, placed un- 
der the cover of an extensive and lofty roof, are em- 
ployed in doing everything requisite for the fitting 
out of the largest steam-ships in the British navy. 
Shears, put in continuous motion by steam power, are 
seen moving steadily up and down, and cutting 
through the thickest boiler plates without the least 
apparent effort, the chisel-shaped knives that cut the 
metal moving just the same whether they be dividing 
the air or shearing iron. Punching engines, in like 
manner, force holes through iron plates an inch thick. 
Shaping and planing machines pare off the tough iron 
as if it w^ere not harder than cheese. Riveting ma- 
chines of different kinds bind together the plates of 
monster boilers with marvellous rapidity ; whilst 
machines for boring, for drilling, for forging, and for 



300 GEEAT FACTS. 

doing every variety of smaller work, are to be seen 
in operation in various parts of the factory. 

Among the smaller self-acting engines, the forging 
machine for making bolts attracts attention by the 
rapidity of its action. It consists of a series of ham- 
mers placed side by side, so constructed as to shape 
small bars of iron into any required form, according 
to the mould of the swages beneath them, represent- 
ing miniature anvils. It is interesting to watch how 
readily the hot iron receives its shape under the action 
of the hammers, which make about 700 strokes per 
minute, the work being transferred from one to another 
to be progressively finished. There is a circular saw 
that cuts through bars of iron as thick as railway rails, 
by making upwards of 1,000 revolutions per minute. 
A rivet-making machine forms the rivet, and shapes 
the head to the requisite size, with great accuracy 
and quickness. There are compound drilling machines, 
in which six drills are acting simultaneously ; hj- 
draulic presses, that force parts of machines together, 
and a great variety of other engines for the saving of 
time and labour. 

Not the least curious of the smaller contrivances 
is an apparatus which deserves notice as a useful ap- 
plication of magnetism to manufacturing purposes. 
Several horse-shoe magnets are attached to two end- 
less chains, moving over suitable wheels, and inclined 
at an angle of 30 degrees. These magnets at the 
lower end of the chain, dip into a tub containing the 
mixed brass and iron turnings and filings from the 
lathes and other tools, and the pieces of iron, being 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 301 

attracted by the magnets, are carried away and 
brushed off into a box, leaving the brass behind to be 
remelted. 

In one department of the building are immense 
foundry furnaces, where metals are melted and cast, 
the blast of the fires being maintained by large rotat- 
ing fans, kept in action by a powerful steam engine, 
by which also the other machines are worked. The 
foundry is most conveniently contrived for casting 
works of any required size, fixed and travelling cranes 
being so stationed and arranged as to carry the ladles 
of liquid metal to any part of the floor. 

In another department is the smithy, where the 
iron to be wrought into shape is heated in forges ; 
and near to the forges stand the Steam-Hammers — 
those gigantic Cyclops of modern times, that strike 
blows, compared with the force of which the blows of 
the fabled Cyclops of antiquity were but as the fall 
of a feather. 

Ranged in a row there are four of these ponderous 
engines, of various sizes ; the largest hammer being 
so heavy as to require the power of four tons to lift it, 
and when falling from a height of 6 feet nothing can 
withstand its crushing blow. Yet the force of this 
mighty giant is so completely under control, and may 
be brought to act so gently, as scarcely to crack a nut 
placed to receive its fall. 

The invention of the steam-hammer was the result 
of necessity. The shaft of a steam engine having to 
be made larger than usual, no hammer then in action 
by water power was capable of forging it, and Mr. 



302 GREAT FACTS. 

James JSTasmyth was applied to, to give his aid in 
contriving the means of removing the difficulty. It 
was then that the idea of lifting the hammer-block by 
the direct action of steam occmTcd to him, and by a 
succession of extremely ingenious devices, he at 
length perfected the steam-hammer, which has been 
pronounced to be one of the most perfect artificial 
machines, and one of the noblest triumphs of mind 
over matter that modern English engineers have yet 
developed. 

The accompanying woodcut represents the largest 
of the four steam-hammers in Keyham factory. The 
hammer block, ^, weighing four tons, is guided in 
its ascent and fall by grooves in two massive up- 
rights, which hold the whole together. The hammer- 
block is lifted by the piston rod of the steam cylinder 
above it, which is made of such diameter, that the 
pressure of the steam on the surface of the piston may 
considerably overbalance the weight of the hammer- 
block, and overcome the friction of the connecting 
mechanism. The cylinder of the largest steam-ham- 
mer at Keyham is 18 inches diameter, which gives an 
area of 254 square inches ; and the pressure of the 
steam generally used being fifty pounds on the square 
inch, the total steam pressure tending to force the 
piston up, when the whole of it is brought to bear, is 
equal to five tons and a half. The force of the blow 
of the hammer, when falling from its greatest height, 
is equal to IM tons. 

By the arrangements of levers, screws, and pipes 
and valves, shown in the engraving, the steam is first 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 



303 



admitted under the piston, and thus acts directly in 
forcing it up, with the heavy hammer-block attached 
to the j)iston rod. "When the block has been raised 
to the required height, it strikes against the end of a 



#|M^ 



^1 




lever, which then shuts off the steam, and allows it to 
escape ; whereupon the hammer falls with its full 
force vertically on the anvil. The end of the lever 



304 GEEAT FACTS. 

which turns off the steam may be adjusted at any 
height, according to the required force of the blow, so 
that the hammer may fall from a height of six feet, or 
be merely raised a few inches. 

The steam hammer, in the early stages of its in- 
vention, required an attendant to turn on the steam 
again at the end of each stroke, but Mr. ISTasmyth in- 
geniously contrived the means of rendering the engine 
altogether self-acting, by causing the force of the col- 
lision to release a spring that holds down the slide- 
valve ; and by this contrivance a continued and 
regular succession of blows is maintained without any 
assistance. 

'Not only can the force of the blow be regulated 
by the height to which the hammer is lifted, but the 
ponderous mass may be arrested in its descent by ad- 
mitting the steam under the piston, so that a skilful 
manipulator can stop it within the eighth of an inch 
from the anvil. 

The Steam Engine itself, by which all the self-act- 
ing mechanisms of a large factory are put in motion, 
is, perhaps, after all, the most wonderful of inven- 
tions ; but it does not strictly come within our prov- 
ince, for Watt had perfected his great work before the 
close of the last century. It was, however, not much 
used, excepting for mining purposes, until after the 
commencement of the present ; and the inventor him- 
self had but a faint idea of the value and vast impor- 
tance of the motive power he had placed at the com- 
mand of man. So little, indeed, was the value of 
steam power appreciated in the early years of its ap- 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 305 

plication, that no notice is taken of the steam engine 
in Beckmann's History of Inventions, though "Watt 
had completed his condensing engines several years 
before that work was published ; and Newcomen's 
steam engine had been at work at least sixty years. 

The liistory of the steam engine affords a striking 
example of the gradual development of an invention. 
from vague and chimerical notions, into an accom- 
plished fact of astonishing magnitude. As in the 
electric telegraph the dreams of the alchemist are fully 
realized by the applications of scientific discovery, so 
in the wonder-working powers of the steam engine 
one of the visionary schemes sketched in the " Cen- 
tury of Inventions" is practically extended far beyond 
the conceptions of its fanciful projector. How little 
could Beckmann have supposed that an invention, 
w^hich he considered too insignificant to be mentioned, 
would, in the course of fifty years, have revolutionized 
the AYorld ! It may possibly be the same, before this 
century is closed, with inventions that are now neg- 
lected or despised. 



The record in the preceding pages of some of the 
most remarkable applications of science during the 
present century, exhibits an amount of intelligence, of 
skill, and of power that seems, when viewed in its 
completed form, to be supei'human. It is only by 
tracing each invention to its source, and by noting the 



306 GREAT FACTS. 

step by step advances by which it has arrived at its 
present state, that we can bring ourselves to believe 
that the great develoj)ment of power and the display 
of ingenuity we witness, can have been accomplished 
by ordinary men. This feeling of admiration, at the 
results of human industry and inventive genius, was 
strongly excited on passing through the wonderful 
collection of the works of all nations in the Great Ex- 
hibition of 1851. After walking through the long 
avenues, crowded with the most highly finished manu- 
factured goods, and with works of art, adapted to every 
purpose and capable of gratifying every luxurious 
taste of highly civilized life, we beheld, in another 
part of the building, the self-acting machines by 
which many of those productions had been manufac- 
tured. We saw various mechanisms, moving without 
hands to guide them, producing the most elaborate 
works ; massive steam engines, — the representatives 
of man's power, — and exquisite contrivances, display- 
ing his ingenuity and perseverance ; and we felt in- 
clined to exalt the attributes of humanity, and to think 
that nothing could surpass the productions there dis- 
played. But as if to repress such vainglorious 
thoughts, there stood in the transept of the building, 
surrounded by and contrasting with the handiworks 
of man, one of the simplest productions of Nature. 
Every single leaf on the spreading branches of that 
magnificent tree exhibited in its structure, in its self- 
supporting and self-acting mechanism, and in the 
adaptation of surrounding circumstances for its main- 
tenance, an amount of intelligent design and contriv- 



SELF-ACTING ENGINES. 307 

ance and power, with which there was nothing to 
compare. After examining the intricate ramifications 
of arteries and veins for spreading the sap throughout 
the leaf, and the innumerable pores for inhaling and 
exuding the gases and moisture necessary for its con- 
tinued existence ; after carrying the mind beyond the 
beautiful structure itself, to consider the provisions of 
heat and moisture and air, without which all that 
mechanism would have been useless ; and having re- 
flected on the presence of the mysterious principle 
w^hich actuated the whole arrangement of fibres, and 
gave life to the crude elements of matter, — we could 
not fail to be impressed with the insignificance of the 
most elaborate productions of man, when compared 
with the smallest work of the Omnipotent Creator. 



THE END. 



Works on Chemistry, 



Class-book of Chemistry. 

BY E. L. yOUMA]S"S. 

12mo. 340 pages. Price 75 cents. 

Every page of this book bears evidence of the autlior's superior 
ability of perfectly conforming his style to the capacity of youth. 
This is a merit rarely possessed by the authors of scientific school- 
books, and will be appreciated by eyery discriminating teacher. 
While Chemistry is almost universally regarded by students as a 
dry and repulsive study (owing, to the rigid and technical manner 
in which it is presented), Mr. Youmans' work will be found pre- 
eminent in clearness and simplicity of diction, by which the subject 
is made at once interesting and attractive. It is especially commended 
by the eminentl}^ practical manner in which each subject is presented. 
Its illustrations are drawn largely from the phenomena of daily 
experience, and the interest of the pupil is speedily awakened by 
the consideration that Chemistry is not a matter belonging exclu- 
sively to physicians and professors. 

From Prof. Wm. H. Bigelow. 
The eminently practical character cf the Class-book, treating of the familiar ap- 
plications of the science, is, in my opinion, its chief excellence, and gives it a value 
far superior to any other work now before the public. 

From David Syme, A. M., formerly Principal of the Math. Dept and Lecturer in 
Nat. Philosophy., Chemistry, and Physiology, in Columbia College. 

Mr. Youmans : Dear Sir,— I have carefully examined your Class-Book on Chem- 
istry, and, in my opinion, it is better adapted for use in schools and academies than 
any other work on the subject that has fallen under my observation. 

1 hope that the success of your Class-Book will be proportionate to its merits, 
and that your efforts to diffuse the knowledge of Chemistry will be duly appreciated 
by the friends of education. 

From Prof. J. Mulligan, Principal of Young Ladies'' School, New Torl\ 
We have a large number of school-books for the purpose of giving elementary 
instruction in Chemistry — possessing various kinds and various degrees of merit ; 
but of all which I have examined, I should prefer the Class-Book of Chemistry, as the 
most perspicuous in style and method, and as containing the happiest selection of 
what is most interesting, and most practically valuable in the vast field of chemical 
Bcience. 

From, the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 
Either for schools or for general reading, we know of no elementary work on 
Chemistry which in every respect pleases us so much as this. 

From the Scientific American. 

Such a book, in the present state of chemical science, was demanded; but to pre- 
sent the subject in such a clear, comprehensive manner, in a work of the size belore 
us, is more than we expected. 

The author has happily succeeded in clothing his ideas in plain language — true 
eloquence — so as to render the subject both interesting and easily comprehended. 
The number of men who can write on science and vrnte clearly, is small ; but our 
author is among that number. 



Works on Cliemistry, 



Chemical Chart: 

BY E. L. YOUMANS. 
On Rollers, 5 feet by 6 in size. New Edition. Price S5. 

This popular work accomplishes for the first time, for Chemistrjj 
what maps and charts have for geography, geology, and astronomy, 
by presenting a new and valuable mode of illustration. Its plan is 
to represent chemical composition to the eye by colored diagrams, 
so that numerous facts of proportion, structure, and relation, 
which are the most diflBcult in the science, are presented to the 
mind through the medium of the eye, and may thus be easily ac- 
quired and long retained. The want of such a chart has long been 
felt by the thoughtful teacher, and no other scientific publication 
that has ever emanated from the American press has met with the 
universal favor that has been accorded to this Chart. In the lan- 
guage of a distinguished chemist, " Its appearance marks an era in 
the progress of the popularization of Chemistry." 

It illustrates the nature of elements, compounds, afiinity, definite 
and multiple proportions, acids, bases, salts, the salt-radical theory, 
double decomposition, deoxidation, combustion and illumination, 
isomerism, compound radicals, and the composition of the proxi- 
mate principles of food. It covers the whole field of Agricultural 
Chemistry, and is invaluable as an aid to public lecturers, to teach- 
ers in class-room recitation, and for reference in the family. The 
mode of using it is explained in the class-book. 

From the late Horace Mann, President ofAntioch College. 
I think Mr. Youmans is entitled to great credit for the preparation of his Chart, 
because its use will not only facilitate acquisition, but, what is of far greater impor- 
tance, will increase the exactness and precision of the student's elementary ideas. 

From De. Joun W. Deaper, ProfesHor of Chemistry in the University ofN. T. 
Mr. Youmans' Chart seems to me well adapted to communicate to beginners a 
knowledge of the definite combinations of chemical substances, and as a prelimiDary 
to tlie use of symbols, to aid them very much in the recollection of the examples it 
contains. It deserves to be introduced into the schools. 

Fron James B. Eogees, Professor of Chemistry in the TTniversity of Pennsylvania, 
We cordially subscribe to the opinion of Professor Draper concerning the value 
to beginners of Mr. Youmans' Chemical Chart. 

JOHN TOEEEY, 
Professor of Chemistry in the College of Physicians <& Surgeons, iV. T. 

WM. H. ELLET, 

Late Professor of Chemistry in Columbia College, S. O. 

JAMES B. EOGEES, 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvan ia. 

From Benjamin Silliman, LL. D., Professor of Chemistry in Yale College. 

I have hastily examined Mr. Youmans- New Chemical Diagrams or Chart of 
chemical combinations by the union of the elements in atomic proportions. The 
design appears to be an excellent onu. 



History of Philosophy. 



A History of Philosophy: 

AN EPITOME. 

I?T DR. ALBERT SCHWEGLER. 

TKA^^SLATED FEOM THE OFvIGIlSTAL GERMAN, BY JULIUS H. SEELYE. 

12ino. 365 pages. Price $1 25. 

This transLation is designed to supply a want long felt by both 
teachers and students in our American colleges. We have valuable 
histories of Philosophy in English, but no manual on this subject 
so clear, concise, and comprehensive as the one now presented. 
Schwegier's work bears the marks of great learning, and is evidently 
written by one who has not only studied the original sources for 
such a history, but has thought out for himself the systems of 
which he treats. He has thus seized upon the real germ of each 
system, and traced its process of development with great clearness 
and accuracy. The whole history of speculation, from Thales to 
the present time, is presented in its consecutive order. This rich 
and important field of study, hitherto so greatly neglected, will, it is 
hoped, receive a new impulse among American students through 
Mr. Seelye's translation. It is a book, moreover, invaluable for 
reference, and should be in the possession of every public and pri- 
vate library. 

From L. P. Hickok, Vice-President of Union College. 
" I have had opportunity to hear a large part of Eev. Mr. Seelye's translation of 
Schwegier's History of Philosophy read from manuscript, and I do not hesitate to say 
that it is a f;\ithful, "clear, and remarkably precise English rendering of this invaluable 
Epitome of the History of Philosophy. It is exceedingly desirable that it should be 
given to American students of philosophy in the English language, and I have no ex- 
pectation of its more f;ivorable and successful accomplishment than in this present 
attempt. I should immediately introduce it as as a text-book in the graduare's depart- 
ment under my own instruction, if it be favorably published, and cannot doubt that 
otJ^or teachers will rejoice to avail themselves of the like assistance from it." 

jP/'ow Heney B. Smith, Professor of Christian Theology, Union Theological 

Seminary^ K. Y. 
"It ^vill well reward diligent study, and is one of the be=t works for a text-book in 
our colleges upon this neglected branch of scientific investigation."' 

i'Vom N. Porter, Pro/es-sor of Intellectual Philosophy in Yale College. 
"It is the only book translated from the German which professes to give an account 
of the recent German systems which seems adapted to give any intelligible informa- 
tion on the subject to a novice." 

From Geo. P. FisiieFv, Professor of Divinity in Yale College. 
" It is really the best Epitome of the History of Philosophy now^ accessible to the 
Englisl) student," 

From JosF.pn Havkn, Professor of Menial Philosophy in Amherst College. 
" As a manual and brief summary of the whole range of speculative inquiry, I know 
of no work which strikes me more favorably." 



Moral Philosophy. 



Elements of Moral Philosophy: 

ANALYTICAL, SYNTHETICAL, AND PRACTICAL. 

BY HUBBARD WI]S^SL>3W. 

12mo. 480 pages. Price SI 25. 

This work is an original and thorough examination of the fun- 
damental laws of floral Science, and of their relations to Christi- 
anity and to practical life. It has already taken a firm stand 
among our highest works of literature and science. From the nu- 
merous commendations of it by our most learned and competent 
men, we have room for only the following brief extracts : 

From the Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., of the Union Theol. Sem., JV. Y. 
"It is a work of uncommon merit, on a subject very difficult to be treated well. 
His analysis is complete. He has shunned no question which his purpose required him 
to answer, and he has met no adversary which he has not overcome." 

From Rey. L. P. Hickok, Vice-President of Union College. 
"I deem the book well adapted to the ends proposed in the preface. The style is 
clear, the thoughts perspicuous. I think it calculated to do good, to promote the truth, 
to diffuse light, and impart instruction to the community, in a department of study of 
the deepest interest to mankind." 

From Eey. James Walker, D. D., President of Harvard University. 
" Having carefully examined the more critical parts, to which my attention has been 
especially directed, I am free to express my conviction of the great clearness, discrimi- 
nation, and accuracy of the work, and of Its admirable adaptation to its object." 

From Eey. Ray Palmer, D. D., of Albany. 

"T have examined this work with great pleasure, and do not hesitate to say that in 
my judgment it is greatly superior to any treatise I have seen, in all the essential 
requisites of a good text-book." 

From, Prof. Rousseau D. Hitchcock, D. D., of Union Theol. Sem.^N. Y. 
"The task of mediating between science and the popular mind, is one that requires 
a peculiar gift of perspicuitj'', both in thought and style; and this, I think, the author 
possesses in an eminent degree. I am pleased with its comprehensiveness, its plain- 
ness, and its fidelity to the Christian stand-point" 

From Prof. Henry B. Smith, D. D., of the Union Theol. Sem., 27. Y. 
"It commends itself by its clear arrangement of the topics, its perspicuity of lan- 
guase, and its constant practical bearings. I am particularly pleased with its views of 
conscience. Its frequent and pertinent illustrations, and the Scriptural character of its 
explanations of the particular duties, will make the work both attractive and valuable 
as a text-book, in imparting instruction upon this vital part of philosophy." 

From W. D. Wilson, D. D., Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in 

Hot) art Free College. 
"I have examined the work with care, and have adopted it as a text-book in the 
study of Moral Science. I consider it not only sound in doctrine, but clear and syste- 
matic in method, and withal pervaded with a prevailing healthy tone of seniiment, 
which cannot fail to leave behind, in addition to the truths it inculcates, an impression 
in i'avor of those truths. I esteem this one of the greatest merits of the bonk. In this 
respect it has no equal, so far as I know ; and I do not hesitate to speak of it as being 
preferable to any other work yet published, for use in all institutions where Moral 
Philosophy forms a department in the course of instruction." 



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